


Guardians of Light

by SevenWays56



Category: Kingdom Hearts, Overlord - Maruyama Kugane & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Heartless (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Nobodies (Kingdom Hearts) - Freeform, Other, Post-Kingdom Hearts III, Things go off the rails slowly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-17
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2020-03-06 15:38:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 35,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18854005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SevenWays56/pseuds/SevenWays56
Summary: Paying the price for the Power of Waking, Sora has landed in another world. Through his bond and connections the Guardians of Light have been dragged to the world as well. As the Darkness follows descending on the unexpected world, a certain Tomb and it's Overlord only complicates the issue even more. As the chaos begins can the storm be weathered?Darkness and Light soon clash over an unsuspecting world. After all Sora was given a wild card.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> How this came to be I will never know. Because I have no idea how and why this happened.

Floating in a Void was the first feeling that registered in Sora's mind. Opening his eyes he was greeted with a dark void as lights rushed passed him. It looked like Young Xehanort was right there was a price to be paid for misusing the Power of Waking. ' _Kairi's worth any price.'_

He turned around wondering what was going to happen to him at the end of the tunnel. Would he just be flying forever in this world or would he end up somewhere? A blinding light covered his eyes forcing him to cover his eyes. When it faded away Sora was greeted with a beautifully clouded sky and a floor made out of reflective water. "The Final World…"

The price it seems was his life. Sora looked down noticing that he wasn't transparent nor was he a sparkle of starlight like the other hearts that lingered in this world. Maybe this was to be his fate wandering the Final World for all eternity. "Great everything just goes on forever."

"Sora?" The Keyblade's chosen turned his head to the sound of the voice. Standing behind him was a familiar face. One he hadn't seen since his failed Mark of Mastery Exam.

"Joshua what are you doing here!" Sora was surprised to see someone else with their full body given the world they were currently in. He paused as he wondered about the most obvious answer. "Wait, you aren't dead right?

Joshua shook his head at this. For him, the occasional crossover to this world was a normal everyday occurrence. Actually, he started to do these crossovers on purpose. "No, I just tend to travel to this world you on the other hand…" Joshua wouldn't call Sora dead but there was something about him. "How did you end up here?"

"Oh, it's a price for misusing the Power of Waking," Sora looked up at the sky for a second. Honestly, he wouldn't change a thing if he had the chance to do it again.

For a moment he was reminded of the words from an  _associate_  about Sora's importance. Him being trap within the Final World due to some power would not do one bit. Especially, given that something big had happened. "Do you think you would be able to head back?"

Sora shrugged his shoulders at this. It wasn't like he could just find a portal and head back to the Realm of Light. That was a one time deal and kind of required the Power of Waking in the first place. Well, Sora didn't know that but he was sure that he wasn't getting special treatment like before. "Not a clue."

A light seemed to come from one of Sora's pockets. Reaching into it he came across the card that Luxord had given him just before he had disappeared to be recompleted. Joshua could practically feel the intense energy coming off of it. "What's that?"

"Luxord called it a Wild Card but why is it…" A flash consumed the Final World. When the light died down the only thing that remained of Sora was a faintly glowing, floating card.

* * *

A few minutes later Joshua looked at the card in his hand. A wild card that could cause any outcome. Fitting that here in the Final World before one falls to Kingdom Hearts that such a thing becomes literal. "You know I half expected you to try to drag him into the Reaper's Game to get him to live again."

He turned around as another person was standing on the watery surface of the Final World. A certain Keyblade wielder that had taken an interest in Sora as of late. "I would have offered it to him but this?" The blank card was held up for him to see. "It has its own thoughts Sora's alive and his friends are coming along for a different game."

"Yes, but why did it choose the world in question?" The Keyblade wielder crossed his arms over his head as he looked up with only one eye visible under his hat. A mist of darkness arose from the ground to the side of both of them.

When it was down another figure joined them seemingly wearing a familiar cloak. The figure looked at both of its associates. "Fitting place to chose a world far beyond the reach of the Foretellers, at least for now."

Joshua knew the world he was talking about. One of the tiny fragments that broke off from the Old World, during the Time of Fairy Tales. Worlds that were now separate from the Realms of Light and In-between. Connected only to the Realms of Sleep and Darkness but existing between them both. "The Old Worlds are a dangerous place in their own right you know," Joshua turned over to the hat wearing Keyblader. "What do you think Brain?"

Brain looked down at the water as if seeing the World in question though it. In a way he was seeing it and what was supposed to happen and what was going to happen. Brain turned over to the cloaked figure. "It won't be long until another group ends up on the world, assuming nothing happens to prevent it but Sora's presence…"

"Yes, I know the Darkness has taken a keen interest in him and his presence will draw the Heartless along with other forces to that world it's inevitable especially given his connection to the X Blade both reforged," The cloaked being placed his hand over his heart. "And original through his connection to Kairi."

No wonder why Brain could see darkness running amok on that World. It was bad enough given how pained its heart was due to accidentally taking in part of a data worlds heart. Who's to say they wouldn't use it as a means to attack the other Old Worlds or bypass into the Realms of Sleep. The summoning of Kingdom Hearts had already altered reality making many things possible both now, in the past, and in the future. The new body of his associate was proof of that.

Speaking of him both Brain and Joshua looked at him wondering if he could do something about it. "I'm sorry but all I can do is influence the Heartless to prevent them from getting too out of control beyond that I need my other siblings too help."

The sound of clapping echoed across this rather untouched would. The three of them turned and seemed to tense up as they saw another cloaked covered figure. One that Brain was surprised to even see. "Oh, I love the look by the way really going retro I'm flattered," He pointed an accusing finger at Brain. "You little troublemaker trying to throw a curveball in the middle of a game," Finally he looked over to Joshua. "Ah, taken an interest in his well being I see."

The three of them tensed up and looked ready to fight when the man raised both his arms up. "Whoa, whoa whoa, no need to fight I'm not here for that promise," A crystal pillar rose before them creating a table. Appearing in a flash was several chest pieces. "Actually, I came wondering if you three would like to play a game while we watch?"

The pieces soon scattered themselves around the four of them. Brain was given thirteen pieces with familiar symbols, Joshua was given a bunch of pieces representing what looked like the native inhabitants of the world, and finally, the Point of Darkness received pieces meant to represent the Heartless and another few off the board for other forces to come later.

"Alright," The Master of Masters started to toss up his piece before he put it down. When he did several pieces appeared all around it. "Begin!"

* * *

Sora awoke in the middle of a forest the rays of sunlight touching his skin. A groan escaped his mouth as Sora picked himself up. His head raced as the memories of what had happened replayed in his mind. Using the Power of Waking he had found Kairi and brought them both home. Then he found himself in the Final World meeting Joshua. ' _Wait, that card I had with me.'_

Reaching into his pockets Sora couldn't find it anywhere. Instead, he pulled a star-shaped charm with a crown like his necklace within the middle surrounded with five brown parts connected to each other. He remembered that Aqua, Ventus, and Terra each had one like this. "A Wayfinder?" It looked about right to be one although the question of how he got it briefly passed his mind. "Wait, where am I?"

The first thing to come to mind was that he was within a forest, that much was certain. Off the top of his head, he compared it to the forests from his travels and none of them fit this one. It looked like he was in a New World. At the very least he wasn't dead or anything. Pocketing the new Wayfinder Sora decided to go over everything he had on him silently thankful for bottomless pockets as he realized just how much stuff he had from his journeys on him.

Next up was his Keyblade. Holding out his hands a flash of appeared as Kingdom Key appeared in his hands. The oversized skeleton key came to its master request without any question. Furthermore, it seemed that nothing too stressful had happened to his heart as his powers were intact. Having to relearn your abilities kind of gets annoying after the first time. A few minutes were spent cycling through the key chains that he had to make certain that they were all with him.

"Everything seems to be with me except for the card Luxord gave me," There was no point asking a question he couldn't answer. Looking around Sora decided to go and see if he could find any signs of civilization. Who knows maybe he'll even find a way back to his friends.

Unknown to him twelve others were waking up as well lost within this world with him. His heart having reached out to them after escaping the Final World.

* * *

Deep within an isolated cave, a vague outline of a keyhole seemed to be edged into a wall. A slight glow started to surround the edges before a glow of light started to pour out followed by a what sounded like a scream of pain from the now glowing keyhole. Within this keyhole lay the Worlds Heart and a fragment of another Heart from a Data created World that was slowly dying. Reaching out on reflex it gripped on to the heart of this world like a parasite.

As it glow brightened the world shifted. Unknown to anyone who couldn't feel the very fabric of reality something had been dropped off into this world. As this happened the Worlds Heart finally fell into a comatose state. A cry echoing out not to be heard by anyone or anything. Except for this time that was not going to be the case.

Across the world ten individuals each one confused as to how they ended up felt a great pain in their heart. Beyond this world, its screams of pain finally were heard beyond the barrier which was unknowingly broken. Yellow glowing eyes turned their attention across the Realm of Darkness to the cry of an injured world. Like supernatural predators looking for their next meal, they felt it. Worlds hiding beyond a veil between their world and their realm.

The barrier before them was weakened and hearts were free for them to consume. Like a tide, immeasurable swarms of them started to flood towards this broken world. As they got closer the faintest feelings of the hearts of the inhabitants crossed over them. The feeling if a familiar Keyblade wielder caught their attention for almost a moment.

The Heartless do not feel fear. No being could ever cause them to feel such an emotion. If anything this feeling brought a renewed fire within the creatures. Like dark tendrils of some eldritch horror, the swarms moved to envelop the world.

Far out in his tower, the retired Keyblade Master Yen Sid watched as one of the faintest stars in the sky was surrounded by the darkness. Meanwhile, in the shattered remains of a world filled with broken Keyblades, a certain figure with one eye looked up at the stars.

* * *

Back in the Final World the Master of Masters looked at his three fellow players as they all heard it from here. The scream of a world in pain and the Point of Darkness felt the shift in the flow of Darkness. "So, who wishes to make the first move?"


	2. Chapter 1

As the screen keep glitching out Albedo wondered if something was wrong. Being honest she didn't quite know how the strange magic of the Supreme Beings fully worked. What she did know was it kept repeating a strange message over and over again. She tried to read it but whatever language it was in she couldn't understand. "How long has this been going on?"

Her gaze moved from the screen to the man, or rather skeleton sitting on the throne before her. Ainz Ooal Gown, formally known as Momonga, was looking at the screens with seemingly no reaction. Actually, on the inside, he was wondering what was even going on and slightly panicking. It had been less than a day since he had ended up in this situation with the NPCs now being alive and he was stuck as his avatar. Now, this was happening and to be honest he had no idea what or how he was going to deal with this.

"It started an hour ago," Albedo wondered if it had been her own fault for the mess. Of course, she didn't really do anything but in her mind it made sense. "Am I the cause of this?"

"No, no it's not your doing," He seriously had no idea as to what was even going on at this point. Whatever it was he'll try to take it in stride. "I'll try to see what the issue is."

Ainz looked at the screen as it finally stopped. Glitching out with a surprising message to him. A new guild was detected. There was a mix of curiosity and perhaps the possibility of seeing anyone else from his old world crossed his mind. Tapping on it to show him he was greeted with a mix of screens all around. The first thing that caught his attention was the name, Guardians of Light. He didn't know every single guild in YGGDRASIL but he hadn't ever heard about this one.

Each of the thirteen screens around him was covered with question marks. Actually, the only things he could even get was a name, species, and an epithet about them. Everything about this was strange and slightly unnerving. ' _Strange it's rare to see a guild were Human races, Demi-Humans, and Heteromorphic players working together.'_

Ainz used [Message] hoping to see if it would work with them. Nothing happened either meaning they had not picked him up or perhaps it wasn't working. Immediately after trying the screens seemed to all merge together into one with the title of the guild. Just below the name a single phrase or motto appeared. ' _There is One Sky, One Destiny.'_

* * *

Riku groaned holding his head as he pulled himself back up. His mind tried to remember what had happened before he found himself lying on the ground. After Sora disappeared he and elected to go and search for him. The others all agreed to help however they could especially Kairi who saw herself as the reason for his disappearance. After a few weeks of searching and finding nothing they finally heard from Master Yen Sid about were Sora could be.

Kairi did not take the news well and neither did he. Sora according to the Master was either a disembodied heart lost in-between the worlds or his essence was being tossed everywhere in all the Realms and worlds. At least that was what he could guess as abusing the Power of Waking had never been done to such a great degree by anyone before him. "Riku."

The silvered-hair Keyblade master turned his head to a familiar voice. Kairi was supposed to be back with Aqua to continue her training and last he recalled he was at Disney Castle. He paused as standing in front of him  _was_  Kairi. He could feel so in his heart and all but the thing is there were three changes to the girl he knew.

First, there was a pair of white feathered wings coming out from what he assumed was her lower back. Secondly, there was a pair of horns wrapped around her head before stopping in front of her forehead and as for her look where almost supernatural now and her, Riku shook his head. ' _Nope stop thinking that right now,'_ Sora would probably hit him right now if he was here. Riku Wouldn't stop him. "Kairi is that you?"

"Yes, Riku I was as shocked as you," When she had awakened she had a strange sensation of having an extra pair of limbs. It was only after moving than did she realize that they were actually wings. "This doesn't feel like something from the magic though."

Riku had quickly summarized that much. Whatever happened to them was extremely sudden and Riku could smell any lingering Darkness. He checked through his pockets wondering if everything was on him like he had left it. "Well, I seem to have everything on me what about you?"

Kairi checked her outfits surprisingly endless pockets. Silently she had wondered if it was possible for her to learn out to magic up her own clothes. "Everything seems to with me before I left," Including the Keyblade Armor on her shoulder given to her by Aqua as a gift. "Wait."

Pulling out of her pocket Kairi produced a red Wayfinder with Sora's crown symbol in the middle. Riku also found a purple one within his pocket much to his surprise. Both charms glowed when they were unknowingly presented to each other before one of the points of Kairi's started blinking as if acting like a compass. Riku looked at the now transformed girl with a questioning look. "What do you think it means?"

"Sora," Kairi could feel it Sora was here. He was the reason that both of them had ended up in this world. "I this is leading us to him."

Riku wasn't as sure as Kairi in that it was Sora's doing. Although, knowing Sora it was very likely it had  _something_  to do with him. If there was one thing he was best at it was getting into trouble. "Maybe," Riku didn't have an idea as to where they were. "Ah, you won't mind me asking but seeing how you have wing do you think you can fly?"

Deciding to give it a shot Kairi jumped up into the air. Without having done so once before flight seemed to have come to her naturally. Riku who was watching this had a small mental sigh of annoyance. First, Sora can glide and now Kairi can fly while he can't do either. ' _Should have taken up the offer to head back to Neverland.'_

After flying overhead and looking out Kairi landed back on the ground. "I think there is a village or something out that way though I don't know what exactly they look like."

At least they knew this world was inhabited with someone nearby. With a better idea of the surroundings, Riku decided to check out the village to get some answers. "Alright, stay out of sight while scout it out."

She gave him a nod as Riku headed in the direction of the village. Kairi waited for his return and silently wondered about what would happen once they find Sora. Would they be able to return home afterwards? Was her sudden transformation permanent? ' _Alright, calm down I'm overthinking things.'_

Taking her mind off the numerous questions she held out her hand as her Keyblade appeared in a flash. Just from the act of calling Destiny's Embrace seemed to wash most of her worries aside. She was still herself underneath it all. It disappeared in a flash of light before a Corridor of Darkness sprang up in front of her with Riku walking out. "Well, I have some good news and bad news."

"What's the bad news?" Best to get it out of the way first. Somehow Kairi had a feeling that this concerned her new looks.

"There is a lot but the biggest one seems to be that the people here don't have a high opinion of non-humans and well…" Riku didn't want to say it but Kairi's current appearance was not going to go over well with the natives. Nevermind, he had tried their Gummiphones only to find out that there was no way to contact anyone.

A sigh escaped her mouth at this. Her new wings moved as she looked at them the strange new limbs that were added to her body. "I understand," Her thoughts returned to the possibility of this being permanent. "What is the good news?"

* * *

Standing out in the outskirts of the now barren Katze Plains another trio had already woken up and were standing around. Ventus, or Ven as his friends called him, looked at both Aqua and Terra as he went over everything they had known so far. "Ok, so we woke up with no idea how we got here and we've each been changed."

Ven and Aqua were more obvious in that regard. For Ven, his ears had ground long and pointed while Aqua skin had paled and her eyes turned red. Terra commented that he didn't feel normal and seeing how long he had spent either possessed by Xehanort or trapped within a Heartless, he could tell when he wasn't feeling like himself. "That about sums it up."

Aqua was grateful that neither of them had been awake for when she awoke. If they were put off by the changes then they would likely have attacked her. ' _Still, it's going to be annoying to get a sunburn,'_  She mentally sighed at this before deciding to just deal with it. "Alright, so now that we established that we been changed and have no idea how…"

Aqua was cut off as the three of them felt something within their pockets. Pulling out the Wayfinders they each had they all noticed a glow coming from them. Looking at each other and them at to were their Wayfinders were pointing they got a feeling it was showing them were to go. Ventus looked at his two friends. "Well, what do you think?"

Aqua looked at there options for a moment. The other way seemed to be nothing but endless plains. There was still the question of how they ended up in this world and somehow the three of them each had an idea as to who and how this had happened. "I guess we have nothing to lose."

As the three of them walked in the direction that their Wayfinders were pointing at Ventus stopped as he realized that in the shock of everything someone was missing. "Chirithy is not with us!"

Both Terra and Aqua paused before remembering that they were missing him. The little creature had become something of a new friend even if Ven hadn't told them how he had known him. To be fair for him it was still foggy for Ven on how. Each time he tried to think back to it he was only presented with a list of names without no idea who they were, and something about Keyblade Unions.

Aqua placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure he'll be ok and besides he was able to find you once before he should be able to do it again."

That did seem to calm Ven down. Chirithy should be able to find him like he had before. There was nothing to worry about. As they walked out Aqua stopped and looked to the side. She thought she had seen something that she had spent more than twelve years fighting. ' _Is my mind playing tricks on me?'_

It wouldn't be the first time as she occasionally still awoke thinking she was in the Realm of Darkness. Still, she was certain she saw a Heartless. "Aqua is something wrong?"

"I thought I saw something but I was mistaken," Terra crossed his arms as he looked in the same direction that Aqua had. There wasn't anything as far as the eye could see.

A chuckle was heard within Ven's mind at this. Mentally he just groaned at this in both annoyance and a bit of hatred. He knew he had returned back into him. They were once the same person but Ven had thought that he wouldn't be able to speak to him. " _Oh, not happy to see me?"_  Vanitas mocked before noticing that something was off with him. " _Ok, what just happened to you?"_

It was only then that Vanitas realized that something was off with Aqua as well. ' _We have been suddenly transported and transformed in a new world without no idea as to why.'_

Vanitas just paused wondering if Ven really was thinking that there was no reason. The embodiment of Ven's Darkness had a good idea as to both who was the reason they ended up like this. " _You know it's Sora's doing right?"_  This only got a mental raised eyebrow from Ven. " _I mean think about it when hasn't Sora_ _ **ever**_   _been part of strange things like this?"_

Ven was about to argue about that but stopped himself. Vanitas wasn't wrong as Sora had been in some way shape or form apart of all this for as long as he could remember. ' _Alright, but how did Sora do this then?'_

* * *

Within a far off forest darkened by the very trees themselves something was stirring. Patches of black seemed to form before rising up as yellow eyes took look at the world around it. The Shadow was soon joined by others of its kind as they looked around. Across other isolated parts of the world, Shadows appeared from the ground looking about the world before dark mists appeared as more powerful Heartless started to pour into the world.

Within the same forest that the first Heartless appeared a small party of bandits were encamped together. A small fire illuminated their camp while the bandits unaware of the danger that was closing in on them. A twig snapped catching the attention of one of them. Turning to the source they were meet with a strange looking creature. "Hey, guys check this out!"

The Shadow just stared at them as the group looked at it. "What in the world in that thing?" It continued to look at them as the Heartless just stared, ignoring the rest of the conversation. "I don't think it looks all that threatening I mean look at it."

One of the bandits picked up the Shadow. "See it's not threatening in the sli-" The hands of the Shadow plugged into the chest of the bandit seemingly phasing through its body. Then they pulled back as the Shadow balled a glowing heart shaped something with incidentally was consumed by Darkness. His body looked on in fear before disappearing before their very eyes. As for the heart something formed in its place.

Yellow eyes opened as the newly born Fluttering took fight for the first time. Its former comrades soon realized that glowing eyes were surrounding them all around. The newest Heartless opened its mouth as it dived at them, hungry for their Hearts. Something watched from up in the trees as the bandits became the first victims of the Darkness in this world.

A smile seemed to form on its face as it watched with yellow eyes as the hearts rose and were consumed. Usually, a Heartless wouldn't possess much of anything in the way of higher thinking above basic instincts or understanding of tools. With the frightening exception of a few rare types of Heartless.

The Darkling jumped down from the branch and to the assembled Heartless. Instinctively they turned to it for leadership. "The fun begins."

Something slammed into a Shadow causing it to be dispersed into black mist. The horde turned their attention to the source of this attack. It looked like some kind of oversized hamster with a long tail. "This one has not seen the like of you before." It tried to look intimidating to the creatures but none of the Heartless registered it as anything. The Darkling, however, couldn't take this seriously. "You are before the Wise King of the Forest!"

Its title meant nothing to them. The Darkling who was the only one able of higher thought actually found its boost rather pathetic. It spoke with an annoyed tone at this. "Really?" It pointed its claw-like hands and let out a blast of darkness knocking the hamster through a tree with ease. "We're the Heartless and we little creature devour worlds."

In puffs of Darkness, several Soldiers formed up followed by Bandits, Archers, and Neoshadows. The Wise King after picking themselves up looked at the ever-growing horde and at the Darkling leader and quickly decided to do one thing in hopes of being spared. "T-this one apologizes."

"How about you hand over your heart to us?" The Darkling held his hand out as the horde eyed the creature as nothing more than mere prey. Instead, it chose to run away from them much to the Darkling's annoyance. The Flutterings moved to purse but the Darkling put a stop to this. "No, no we can consume its heart some other time until them my siblings let us locate a more... sizable feast."

Eventually, they will find the heart of this world. From it, they would feast of the inhabitants as most will be dragged kicking and screaming into the abyss. It didn't matter how long it took nor how many times to they were pushed back. In the end, unless the barrier strengthened the fate of the world was set.

* * *

Undead were something of a common sight within the Katze Plains. The mass of deaths being responsible for their appearance. This time the seemingly mindless undead were greeted with the Heartless that had started to spawn into this world. A Neoshadow jumped on the skeleton and reached into the body and surprisingly phased though something that seemingly didn't exist. It pulled out its hands clutching a Heart that was then consumed by Darkness.

An arrow flew into the Neoshadow's shoulder causing it to turn in to the source. Undead archers had joined the ongoing fight before Heartless Archers fired their own volley at them. Looking on a group of adventurers couldn't believe what they were seeing. These strange creatures just appeared and started attacking the undead and were removing some kind of thing from them. "Look out!"

One of them called out catching their attention as a Shadow jumped at them before it was swatted aside by a Warhammer. Around them, dark mists spawned as Heartless started to appear looking at them. The plains were soaked in Darkness and unknown to the poor adventurers they had walked in at the worse time. "Where are they coming from?"

They grouped up and started knocking back the Heartless as they slowly walked forward attacking one after another. It was almost like the Heartless were purposely playing with their food. A large pool of Darkness formed on the ground in front of them as something large rose from it. "By the gods!"

The Darkside looked down at them with its glowing yellow eyes as Shadows spawned from the blackness under it. Sunlight started to disappear as the very sky seemed to darken in their presence. Looking at them the Darkside came down on to them.

A few minutes later a Corridor of Darkness sprang up as the Darkling appeared to on the plains. It looked at the empty shells that were once the adventurers. Slowly their bodies started to twist and turn, jerking around as their clothes and body were being consumed by a strange white and black swirl of energy. When it was down the skinny, unsettling lanky bodies of Dusks rose up, "Aw the first Nobodies born of our victims."

Basic were the Dusks in some ways one would consider them zombies. Gone was their sense of humanity, the very heart of their being. In a burst of the twilight nothingness that born they the Dusks suddenly found themselves with the middle of an encampment of Beastmen. "Where did they come from?"

Back at the plains, dark magic burned from the claws of the Darkling. A black mist seemed to cover the ground as Heartless looked to be forcing their way through the very earth itself. Overhead the sky darkened as Shadows feel like rain the barriers between the Realm of Darkness and the world all but collapsed at this part of the world.

* * *

Sora had no idea where he was even going as he walked through the forest. Actually, everything seemed to look the same now that he thought about it. Maybe it was time to get a better look from somewhere overhead. ' _Now where is…'_

There a large tree that poked far out above the others. Focusing on it, he jumped from branch to branch within a blink of an eye thanks to flowmotion. As he landed on top of a high branch he looked out to survey the land around him. What he was greeted with seemed to be a large forest as far as the eye could see. Squinting his eyes and blocking the sun he could just make out the treeline thinking up ahead.

The sound of wood breaking reached his ears as Sora looked down before realizing the branch was about to give way from under him. Before it could Sora jumped into the air. Instead of falling as gravity intended he started to glide through the air. At the very least it would be easier to glide there then walking.

When he finally touched down he noticed a light coming from his pocket. He pulled out the Wayfinder from before as its upper right point started to glow. "Something important is in that direction?" The glow ceased for a moment as Sora got the first clue about well, anything really. "Looks like I'm heading that way then."

Walking for the next few minutes he finally came across what looked like a village. He walked to it before a scream was heard and in front of him, a few black mists appeared as Sora immediately summoned his Keyblade. "Heartless!"

The Heartless turned around as they sensed the presence of the Keyblade. Immediately Sora took out two of them before they even registered what was going on. The rest didn't fare any better as he sliced right through them before racing into the village. No matter where he went the Heartless seemed to follow.

* * *

Shalltear was almost certain that something had been on the First Floor. Something had set off a few of the traps and yet there was no bodies or anyone walking through the halls. Nothing was what had greeted her. There were no clues as to how this had happened and no indication that they had been attacked. If anything it looked like the traps had just gone off for no reason.

She stopped and turned around as she was almost certain she saw a shadow moving behind her. Feeling that she was being watched Shalltear walked back to make sure that her eyes were only playing tricks on her. ' _There is nothing here.'_

Perhaps it was just some stupid summon or something that had triggered the spell. Regardless she was going to increase patrols over her floors. As she walked away a Shadow picked itself up from the floor. This Heartless was one of a few that managed to spawn into the Tomb from the Realm of Darkness. The others were destroyed by the traps before they could fully form except for it.

The Shadow disappeared in a puff of black mist just as Shalltear felt a presence behind her. Once again she had caught sight of nothing. After a few seconds to confirm everything she opened a Gate and walked through to give her report to Ainz.

* * *

Something was off about this. Every hundred years he knew that the Players would come. This time something was up as he had a dream of thirteen lights falling across the sky. After that dream, he could almost taste it. Utter bile, unlike anything he had ever felt. ' _Just what is this thing that I am sensing?'_

His magic may have been twisted but it could still feel the world. Said connection allowed him to pick up on the intervals of what the Players appeared. Now, it was warning him about something. Looking at a suit of armor an idea formed to see and test this force. The Platinum Dragon Lord made a vow to remove this bile from his world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who haven't played Union Cross (I know most of you probably have), a Darkling is a Keyblade wielder who fell to Darkness become a Pure Blood Heartless and retained their ability to think. Retroactively I think this meant that Ansem Seeker of Darkness was likely a unique Darkling. Speaking of the Heartless they are serious out of context threat to well... everyone besides the Guardians of Light (though for them it is an in-context threat).
> 
> Now, I think I should list who is what right now in case it's not obvious.
> 
> Sora and Riku: Human
> 
> Kairi: Succubus
> 
> Aqua: Vampire (True)
> 
> Terra: Lycanthrope
> 
> Ventus: Elf
> 
> Also, I will confirm this. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are of the Demi-Human races, what else did you expect? As for them showing signs of what they become? I don't want to spoil anything but Kairi is immune to the effects of the change thanks to being a Princess of Heart. I did this change more to make interacting with humans more of a difficulty given that she is you know... a demon.


	3. Chapter 2

It happened so fast for the village. One minute everything is fine nothing has happened and in the next, these creatures just popped into existence and began attacking the town. Enri couldn't believe what she was seeing as one of these creatures jumped on a person and then pulled out a glowing ball of light from them.

Their body seemed to disappear before her eyes as the creatures turned their gaze to her. Enri turned to run away but was meet with more of them practically surrounding her. The Soldier jumped at her reaching for her heart before a large key shaped blade pieced through its body as it disappeared in a puff of dark smoke. Floating out of it was the heart contained within. "Need some help?"

The Heartless turned their attention to Sora as they recognized the danger he posed. Two of them tried to jump him to only get meet with a swing by the Keyblade. The rest rushed after him but just like the others Sora quickly dispatched them with just a few swings. Immediately more black mists formed as Heartless appeared in front of them.

' _W-what's going on?'_  The boy in front of her held his weird sword in front of him as they jumped at them.

"Blaze!" Sparks of flames arched at the tip before a large burst of fire shot out and burned much of the Heartless alive. The last two managed to get in close before a semi-transparent barrier sprang to life in front of Sora. "Reflect!" In contact with it, they were seemingly hit with their own attack. "Wind!"

A miniature tornado formed up dragging them along until they disappeared in a flash of black mist. "That has to be the last if them," There wasn't any more sounds for help and already he had clever through them as he raced through the village. Sora turned his head to her. "You alright?"

She gave him a nod as she looked at the mists that had been the only thing to mark that these creatures existed. This wasn't like anything she had ever seen or heard about. It was almost like they were made of shadows. ' _W-who is this guy?'_

A few minutes later the village chief had thanked Sora for taking care of the creatures. Sora just brushed it off as he saw nothing special about it. "Are you sure there isn't anything we could do for you?" The Keyblade wielder crossed his arms in thought. He was in a new world and had no idea where he was going. "Do you have a map I can look at?"

The chief gave him a nod as he looked for the map of the surrounding areas. Once he laid it down Sora could confirm he was nowhere he had been to before. Reaching into his pocket Sora pulled out his Gummiphone looking to snap a picture of the map. "What is that thing?"

Sora looked up as they were all staring at the Gummiphone that he had within his hands. In the back of his mind, Sora could hear Donald yelling at him about the world order. "It's... a kind of magical object from my homeland." He hoped that there was magic in this world. ' _Please let this work.'_

"Really?" The village chief looked at the object in amazement. "You'll homeland must be amazing!"

Immediately a picture of the Destiny Islands appeared in Soras's mind. Almost immediately he was reminded of Kairi and wondered if he would ever get back to her. "The thing is I wanted to leave it for so long until recently."

Was he even able to return home? Besides opening a Corridor of Darkness, which was out of the question as he wasn't anywhere near immune to the effects of Darkness as Riku was, and furthermore, he didn't know how to make a Keyblade Glider. As such he was mostly stuck here until he found a way to contact his friends. ' _Wait a minute…'_

An idea was starting to form in his head when he was brought out of his thoughts by the village chief. "You won't mind me asking but do you think your next stop would be E-Rantel?" Sora looked at him as his attention was pulled out of his thoughts. "I have something to send to the mayor there if you wouldn't mind I'm sure he would reward you."

"Sure I guess," Sora gave him a smile. It wouldn't hurt to do something for them. "What you need to deliver?"

* * *

Lea looked at the two others with him as they tried to figure out what had happened to them. Before suddenly waking up in an unfamiliar landscape with a sun that wasn't in a permanent state of twilight the three of them were discussing on how to find the missing girl that both him and Isa had befriended. Then everything when white and he woke up here with two of his three friends.

Speaking of them it seemed that they had all been changed in some ways by the trip. For one he was certain that he had fur growing all around his body, his teeth were sharper and if he had a mirror his eyes would have cat-like pupils. He looked to his right at Roxas who was leaning on a tree. The former Nobody of Sora, who as he learned looked like Ventus due to Sora having his heart when Roxas was created, seemed normal at first glance. It was at his ears that gave away something had happened to him with them being somewhat long and pointed.

To his left was Xion who had managed to return to her usual form as a black-haired copy of Kairi. That was something he never thought he would ever say. According to Isa, originally Xion used to look different depending on who was looking at her. After her heart, which had formed over her life and interactions with him and Roxas, had entered her replica it settled on her looking like a black-haired Kairi. When she awoke however they were greeted with a featureless face which actually terrified her until she by accident took on Sora's appearance and then Roxas and finally his.

After calming down she had returned to the usual form she always had. "Alright, so let's see we are in a completely different world with no idea how we got here and we have each been altered as well," Well, this was something he honestly couldn't believe was happening. That was saying something given all he know was possible. "So, any ideas as to how this happened?"

Both Xion and Roxas looked at each other as they silently both had the same idea. "Sora."

"You think Sora the cause of this?" Why was he pretending, of course, Sora would be a reason for this. When has he ever not been the cause of some sudden change in there lives as of late? "Well, I guess we can at least find Sora."

The three of them knew how devastating the loss of Sora had been to them both. Kairi especially seemed a bit too overzealous in looking to get Sora back. Lea was almost reminded of herself back when he was Axel. Nevermind the feeling that his parents had went through after hearing everything. "Well, that's great and all but do we know where to even look for him?"

Roxas had made a good point. This world was likely large like any other. For all, they know they could be a few miles or whole continents away from him. Xion thought about how they could go about it when she noticed a giant glow coming from one of her coat pockets. A black Wayfinder with what appeared to be in inverted Nobody emblem at its center was pulled out. "Where did you get that?"

"I have no idea," Xion shrugged her shoulders. A glow caught both Lea and Roxas attention as the two of them reached into their floats and pulled out two Wayfinders of their own. A red Wayfinder for Lea and a light yellow for Roxas. "You think they are leading us to Sora?" It was as good a thought as any.

Roxas and Lea looked at each other wondering if they should trust it. They had just randomly change species and been given a Wayfinder. Even if this did have something to do with Sora the both of them felt it was rather convenient. But they had nothing else to work with so they might as well. "Maybe we'll just have to go and see."

Before they could head off in the direction dark mists formed around them as Heartless appeared. Lea groaned at this as Roxas summoned Oathkeeper and Oblivion while Xion summoned her copy of Kingdom Key. Flame Liberator appeared in Lea's hands as he knew this would happen eventually. "Of course, the Heartless are everywhere."

* * *

The increased patrols on the first three floors did not go unnoticed by the other Floor Guardians and by Ainz. Shalltear's reasoning about the traps suddenly being activated did bring up a good reason. Given that they were in a new world there could be all kinds of dangers. After spending two days holed up within the Tomb Ainz was starting to get a little curious about the outside world.

His attempts at calling the other guild hadn't worked at all. In fact, if he didn't know any better it seemed like every time he looked at the screen a glitch happened. This was starting to both get annoying and made him wonder if it had something to do with this new world. Speaking of the world Ainz had decided to make a means to view the world from.

Ainz stopped as he thought he saw something out the corner if his vision. Turning over he saw nothing. ' _Am I starting to pretend that things are there?'_  This seemed like more proof that he was starting to go stir crazy. ' _Everything is already crazy, to begin with.'_

As he continued to walk away a Shadow moved up from the floor before disappearing. It reappeared in front of its master. The Darkling looked to it as other Shadows appeared. Sitting on the makeshift chair the leader of the invading dark forces was looking over what each of the Shadows have shown it about the world.

Two screens seemed to appear out of the dark puffs one viewing the Tomb of Nazarick and the other split viewing several different people. From the probes, it seems that they would be the most trouble for them while in this world. ' _Wait, he looks familiar,'_  Its eyes narrowed as it glared at Ventus. Memories of a time long since gone when the world was whole or just about flashed through its mind. ' _Ventus…'_

Darkness arched off the being as memories of what he did cross her mind. Yet, it was likely he didn't remember anything that had happened. The Darkling knew that they didn't and only knew what had happened thanks to its new existence. ' _How long ago it was when the Darkness claimed me, with no memory it seemed assured,'_  For a moment it forms seemed to shift as memories of what it was flashed through the heart within. ' _I wonder what happened to the part left behind?'_

In the Darkness surrounding its form black-hair could be seen before the face of a young girl around Ventus age poked through. As soon as it formed the Darkness overtook it and returned to the usual hooded face of the Darkling. "We shall see soon enough," The screens twisted and change before showing her the leaders of the nearby nations. "As for right now, we have…"

The sounds of Heartless being destroyed but their essence returning to the Realm of Darkness caught its attention. With a way of its hand, it watched as a figure in armor tore through several of its outlining scouts. Yellow eyes narrowed as it watched the last of them disappear into a puff of dark smoke. "How annoying," Raising its claws as dark energy gathered it speed up the process of regeneration for the Heartless. Immediately they reappeared and with more flashes of Darkness signaling that more of them were appearing. "Take it out."

* * *

A Corridor of Darkness sprang to life as Riku walked out with Kairi following behind him. The Princess of Hearts never felt anything when passing through the dark pathway, in fact, she didn't need protection from the corrupting effects, though as if by instinct she knew the Darkness had been circling her. Riku took out the Wayfinder that he had as it glowed forward in front of them.

Pointing at the city that stood right before them. Riku pulled out the map that the village had given him. "It looks like we ended up near E-Rantel."

Kairi remembered what Riku had told her about the area where they had ended up on the world. It was near the board between the Re-Estize kingdom and the Slane Theocracy. The now transformed girl was thankful that they were not traveling in the way to the Theocracy as according to the information Riku was able to get they were big supporters of human supremacy. A flash of dark mist caught their attention as several Heartless appeared in front of them.

Braveheart and Destiny's Embrace flashed into existence as both of them were ready for a fight. No sooner did the Heartless disappear in a black mist disappearing before their eyes. Riku unsummoned Braveheart as the scent of Darkness disappeared. "Weird, I never thought the Heartless would just disappear like that," Being instinct driven the Heartless would have attempted to attack them both thanks to the Keyblades they both had. ' _Unless someone is controlling them.'_

With Xehanort's defeat, it looked like the Heartless were going to slowly disappear from the Realm of Light. The only other person who Riku could see controlling the Heartless for any length was Maleficent and even then they did abandon her so that was unlikely. "Riku why do you think the Heartless are here?"

"I don't know but that can't be good regardless," The Heartless would endanger everyone here regardless of who was controlling them. Eventually, when the time comes they may choose to abandon whoever summoned them. "Kairi, I'm afraid you may have to stay outside of the city."

"Actually, that wouldn't be a problem," She looked to the piece of the Keyblade armor she had been given as it activated. When it was done covering her Riku took noticed that her wings seemed to have disappeared and the helmet was wide enough to hide her horns. "I tested out my armor earlier today and well hopefully they do have girls in armored plating around here."

* * *

The last Neoshadow was slammed into the ground, breaking apart into whips of Darkness. The suit of armor piloted by the Platinum Dragon Lord stood in the middle of the torn landscape that had become a battlefield between it and the Heartless. A Corridor if Darkness sprang up behind it as the Darkling walked out annoyed by the thing in front of it.

Its eyes if they could, would narrow in annoyance at it. "I see an animated suit of armor," It was quite clever actually especially to fight the Heartless. "Who am I speaking to behind the puppet?"

The Dragon Lord looked at the creature in front of him. It looked somewhat like the other and it had the same feel as the others but given it could speak and the power that it seemed to wield. "Are you the leader of these things?"

"Things?" It mockingly had a look of annoyance at being called a mare thing. "We are the Heartless the spawn of the very Darkness that makes up half of creation itself," Pointing a claw at its the Darkling decided to see how far it can go with this. "In fact, right now you have a part of it within your very heart."

"I doubt that," He knew about the organ in question and there was no way something like this was within it.

The Darkling if possible rolled its eyes at this. "Not the physical organ," It summoned a soldier to it only to grab it's head slowly crushing it. "Think of it more as the sum of who you are, emotions, memories, personality, all wrapped up in Light and Darkness."

With that, the Soldier's body broke apart as the heart floated up and was pulled to the Realm of Darkness. The Platinum Dragon Lord was starting to understand what this had to mean. "Are you from YGGDRASIL?"

It took the Darkling a few moments but it realized what it was getting at. The shares of another heart. A heart made of data that rested within the world's heart. A laugh started to leave its mouth. "Are you talking about the data world that partly infested the heart of this world?"

"Data?" He didn't understand what this thing was even talking about. From the Darkness behind it, the Darkling pulled out a strange thing holding it within its talons.

"Yes data as in a simulation, or it doesn't exist," The disk faded away within its hands as if to give him an idea. "The only reason this YGGDRASIL is even real for you is due to a strange property advance digital world and bringing it to reality."

He still didn't fully understand what they were saying but he knew that it was only stalling. The suit got ready to attack it as he knew it was after something. "Enough, why are you here!"

Tendrils of Darkness sprang up around it as a laugh was heard echoing from it. He tried to attack her but it was sadly no use as the Heartless was already gone. Looking around for any signs of more of its irk he was meet with nothing. ' _That creature if what it says is true then what am I facing off against?'_

Beyond that, the way it talked about the world of the players, how casual it spoke going as far as to call it fake, did that mean that they were not normal? It had said that their world had been partly infested by the "data" within its own heart. He knows so little about both threats that he faced. If only there was someone who could explain to him everything.

* * *

A notebook was closed as a sigh escaped her mouth. She knew what had happened very early on. At least as long as she stood here eventually everyone else will come and find her. Namine stood in the room that she had awoken in. Plain white with symbols all around her. Then she noticed the changes to her body.

White feathered wings coming from her lower back, curved horns on her head, and her figure. The blonde former Nobody of Kairi reached out again with her abilities. In the time following her existence as her own person Namine had practically been adopted by Ansem the Wise and spent time studying her abilities to manipulate memories. What surprised her was that now her powers it seems could manipulate anyone's memories with varying degrees of effort on her part.

They theorized it was because of the X Blade and Kingdom Hearts. Sora had been given reforged weapon, the counterpart of the heart of everything, and it seems that she could use its connection to connect to everyone. Right now she was trying to use it to know where everyone was. ' _Roxas, Xion, and Lea are closest to me.'_

She could reach out and try to use the connections to hopefully speak to them. Looking through the connections she found that the King, Donald, and Goofy were the furthest from her and going in the opposite direction. Waving through the connections she felt the worlds heart. The pain it was in almost cause her to collapse. Namine pulled herself back from this as she rested on a wall.

Something had entered the heart of this world. Poisoning the very nature of this world. There wasn't any type of harmony like with her and Kairi, or Sora and numerous hearts that used to be within him. No, the invading heart was acting like a parasite to the world's heart.

Its screams had caught the attention of the Heartless and like hunters hearing the cries of a sick animal they have come. When she got her bearings again she reached out with her powers and tried to make contact with either Roxas, Xion, or Lea.. ' _Xion?'_

" _Namine is that you?"_

* * *

Saving the village had proven to be something that had benefited them. As Albedo had to expect from her the greatest of the Supreme Beings. The armor-clad Floor Guardian was told not to reveal herself to the villagers. Much easier to converse with them if they didn't know what they are. "First those strange creatures attacked us and then those fake knights," She was overhearing one of the villagers talking to themselves as they rebuilt the damages that the attack had caused. "It was only three days that I lost my brother-in-law to those things you know."

"Those things that suddenly came into being, out from the black mists?" Albedo's attention peaked at this if only slightly. "I was away when that happened did they say those things didn't leave a body?"

Albedo was slightly intrigued by this when Ainz, under disguise, walked up to her. "Albedo is something wrong?"

"No, Lord Ainz it's nothing." Ainz looked to the villagers as he heard them talking about the strange creatures that had attacked them before. The village chief had informed him about it just a while ago.

Creatures that had been taken care of by someone wielding a key shaped sword. According to the chief, he had a strange device and left a few days ago with a letter to the mayor of the nearby city. Someone who was like him from a faraway land. He was almost certain it was one of the so-called Guardians of Light.

The question about these creatures was another story. They had just appeared and taken at least three victims before the travel dispatched them. The weirdest thing was that there weren't any bodies to bury nor any bodies from them. ' _An unknown life forms that leaves no body behind and appears out of nowhere,'_  It sounded like something of a poorly written horror novel. ' _Could they enter into the Tomb without us knowing?'_

Suddenly he wondered if something had set off the traps on one of Shalltear's floors.

* * *

Brain looked at the Master of Masters as he was laughing at him. The first Keyblade wielder and the maker of them couldn't help himself. "It isn't funny."

"No, the outcome isn't but how you got there is," He held out several cards that seemed to materialize seemingly out of nowhere. First one had a picture of a girl with two pony tales. "First, you decide to kill someone immediately regret your decision but never tell her brother," He then pointed to the glowing sparkles at the far end of their line of sight in the Final World. "By the way, she's right there if you want to apologize."

As soon as he pointed this out Brain turned to the sparkles of a heart lost in the Final World. Unable to rejoin with Kingdom Hearts. It made him feel rather ashamed. "The others didn't get any better," He tossed out a few cards. "Her brother and possibly his girlfriend ended up attacked by Heartless along with a few others who got caught in the ride," The next card to appear was of Ventus wielding a different Keyblade from the one he currently had. "Then there is the one who ended up in the care of a man obsessed with the Keyblade War."

There was only one left and Brain wondered what he was going to tell him this time. "As for Skuld well you messed up so badly with her that I didn't even think it was possible to remove someone's heart mid-transit to the next Worldline."

"Wait, what?!" That wasn't supposed to happen. Brain was in a panic at what could have happened to her.

"Yep, her body landed on some world within the Realm of Light while her heart regrettably got lost in the Realm of Darkness and you know what happens right?" He revealed the card of Skuld with was then covered in a dark flash as in her place was a Darkling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can guess just who the Darkling is. As for the timeline of this chapter it kind of spans about three days. Speaking of which I do have a point of major divergence for the plotline of Overlord planned, as is enviable given you know all other forces I added.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I forgot to post this one for almost a whole month. For that I'm sorry.

No one spoke as they just stared at the first Keyblade Master. The air in the, well endless realm at the edge of Kingdom Hearts, was silent as the other three people just stared at him. "Is there something on my face?"

The Point of Darkness chose to speak up as it moved the Nobody piece to the right. "What you have just did was going too far," Under the hood two glowing gold eyes stared back at the Master of Masters. He turned over to Brain who was surprisingly able to keep himself composed. "You did what you believed was needed complications are to be expected, my friend."

"I know," Brain looked at the crown piece standing in the center with three others. One having dragon wings that Joshua had placed, a hooded head that the Point of Darkness had chosen, and lastly a skull that the Master of Masters had picked.

* * *

Ainz walked through the streets of the city with Narberal Gamma besides him. After helping the village and learning a bit about the world he figured he should continue to explore this world. Hearing about the adventurers guild from the village chief peaked his interests. Both of them were in disguise, although more so him wearing a full suit of armor as Narberal could pass for a human, and even still people were looking at him with curiosity.

Narberal just looked at the people hiding her dislike for the humans around them. Regardless she didn't question why they were doing this nor was she going to ask what they hoped to gain from it. Her Lord knew exactly what he was doing after all. "Seriously, white monsters?"

"Yeah, I saw them they looked like white string creatures who moved in unnatural ways," Ainz caught attention as he overheard a few of the citizens talking about another strange oddity. "What was more unnerving was that they spoke to me and the voice was familiar to me!"

First, he had heard about strange black creatures and now white ones. It was reasonable for him to assume that neither of these were normal to this world and from his knowledge of YGGDRASIL neither were they native to the game. ' _There's something going on.'_

Out of the crowd, he saw someone who just seemed to stick out among them. He wasn't wearing anything like the people walking past him. Actually, he was just standing there looking at a star-shaped charm. "Come on you were glowing just a moment ago."

Sora groaned as the Wayfinder didn't respond or anything. He had finally completed the task he was given, it took longer than it should because he got lost on the way here, and the Wayfinder stopped glowing when he took it out. ' _Great now I have no idea where to go.'_

He let out a defeated sigh as he pocketed the Wayfinder. Sora turned his head to the side as he noticed someone was walking up to him out the corner of his eye. The one clad in armor was staring at him. "Can I help you?"

"Sorry, might I ask are you from around here?" Ainz looked at him curiously as he wondered if he was possibly one of the members of the Guardians of Lights. Call it a hunch but something was off about him beyond just the looks.

This was actually rather strange. Come to think of it no other world that he had visited ever questioned his look. Well, Simba did when he visited his world but that was because he had seen him as his human self, and that crazy Frollo guy who thought he was a gypsy. Besides that, no one else ever really seemed to care. So far it looked like quite a few people were asking about it. "No, actually I kind of came from somewhere far away."

That didn't necessarily confirm or deny if he was or not. They only knew so little about the world. It could be that the guy in front of him was from a far off land. Ainz just had to confirm it. "Do you know of something called YGGDRASIL?"

"Yeah," Sora looked at him with a hint of curiosity on why he was asking that. The game that Rex had shown him, Verum Rex, had something of a boss called Yggdrasil that he had gone on about being one of the secret bosses that were going to be made available. Which reminds him he did have a copy of the game back on the Gummi Ship.

Unknown to Sora, Ainz was talking about a completely different YGGDRASIL. The Overlord looked at the person in front of him as the suspicion of him being apart of the Guardians of Light was now extremely likely. ' _Riku or Sora.'_

Those were the names of the two who's race was human among the group. So, it was either one of them that was standing in front of him. A light came from Sora's pockets as he pulled out the Wayfinder. For a brief moment an image of two figures into his mind. He spoke in a low tone with surprise at this. "Riku and Kairi are here?"

Being as close as he was Ainz was able to catch that. Kairi and Riku were two of the names of two of the Guardians of Light members. That just confirmed it to Ainz. This was far too much of a coincidence. ' _So, this must mean that he's Sora.'_

Sora clutched his Wayfinder As he turned to run off. Kairi and Riku were here. He didn't care and almost forgot he was in a conversation with someone. "Sorry, I got to go nice meeting you."

"Likewise," Strange he didn't seem like he knew that his guildmates were here with him. Then again he was likely still dealing with the whole change of surroundings and probably wasn't with them when it happened. Ainz turned his gaze over to Narberal who was eyeing him. "Is there something on your mind?"

Narberal turned her attention back to her lord. She figured it was something important but she was very much confused. "I don't understand why did you ask that human about YGGDRASIL?"

That's right only him and the Floor Guardians knew about the presence of the other guild. He should make the announcement when he got back about them. Another thing in a slowly growing list of things to do. ' _Perhaps, the Floor Guardians could help with it?'_

* * *

The Six Cardinals were in a meeting to discuss something of interest that had popped up as of late. First was the near total loss of the Sunlight Scripture followed up by the sudden appearance of black creatures that would basically pop into existence. Right now these black creatures were something os a more pressing concern. "These things were spotted here bypassing all our defenses like they weren't there."

There was nobody to research about them. Once killed they break apart into a dark mist, with some spawning a glowing heart, and any sign of their existence disappearing after a few moments. Attempts to capture them were equally useless as they would just pop out of existence. "We have no idea what they are besides what the Thousand Leagues Astrologer talking about them being some kind of 'All Consuming Darkness'."

Speaking of the eleventh seat in the Black Scripture, whatever this All Consuming Darkness was completely terrified them. All hope had been lost on their face with only despair remaining. While the Cardinals had no idea what she was talking about she did. She somehow saw them at the board of the World. A literal force of nature that seemed ready to devour all of them. "At the very less it seems that they are not all that hard for our forces to take out alone so they can't be that much of an issue."

"Perhaps, but our informants in the other nations seems to assert that they are attacking all them causing several villages to go missing with even the Beastmen being on their guard," Although the information was far more difficult with reports of white creatures said to plague them as well. One thing was for sure if this was just a vanguard then perhaps it was best to figure out the size of them.

It was clear that they should think about fortifying themselves both for this threat and any others that might be out there. That brought them up to the thing that the eleventh member had found before this mess began. "Catastrophe Dragon Lord is soon to be revived I suggest we see about using it to our advantage."

The Cardinals looked among themselves at this idea. It might be doable and could even ensure that they have something up their sleeve just in case. "Very well."

* * *

Riku sighed as he pocketed his Wayfinder. It had been leading both him and Kairi into the city but now there was nothing. Kairi's was no better in that regard. Speaking of which no one thought it was strange for someone to just walk around in a full body plate of armor. Then again given that this world looked like they probably just passed it off as a knight or even an adventurer for all he knew. "This doesn't make any sense it was leading us here so where do you think he is?"

Kairi knew that he was here. She could feel in her heart. Looking around past the crowds in the town square she saw him running through the streets. "Riku look!"

Sora stopped and looked around before he finally saw Riku and what he suspected was Kairi. He immediately raced over to them making sure not to hit anyone as the both of them did the same. "Riku, Kairi!"

"Sora!' The both of them practically yelled out as they both brought him into a hug. A few minutes later the reunited trio were talking together within an alleyway.

This was a surprising experience as Sora learned that they had been searching for him for months while for Sora it felt like it had only been days at most. Then again time didn't seem to move wherever Sora had ended up. "Wait, you didn't fly here on the Gummiship or got here through the Corridors of Darkness?"

That was strange to hear. Sora wondered if it was due to the wild card that he had. Unless it was something else. He didn't put much thought into it although maybe someone else could figure it out. "Hey, Kairi why are you wearing that armor?"

"Its because when we got here I ended up changed and the locals aren't very welcoming to non-humans," Kairi grabbed on to the helmet and removed it. Sira's mouth was agape as he caught sight of the horns on her head and the almost supernatural beauty she seemed to have gained.

Riku who was looking at his reaction. A smirk formed on his face. "I see Kairi left you speechless should I leave you two lovebirds alone?"

Predictable a blush formed on both of their faces at this. Sora shot his best friend an annoyed glare while Kairi looked away in embarrassment. Riku, however, had to fight back a laugh at his friends' expense. Suddenly a glow caught their attention as they each pulled out the Wayfinders that they were given. They each seemed to be pointing for them to head north of where they currently were. "So, you think we should head that way next?"

The group looked at one another before Kairi and Riku shrugged. They had a detailed map of the area making it easier for Riku to send them through a Corridor of Darkness if they need be, as well as navigate through the area. "We guess."

* * *

It had been almost a week since the three of them had ended up in this world. Without any map to go on Aqua, Terra and Ventus had been basically walking around blind. The native lifeforms that they had met seemed to be hostile to them but surprisingly after a few engagements they didn't pose any threat to them at all. Almost none of them choose to comment on this. All except for a certain voice within Ven's head. " _This world is filled with weaklings!"_

Ven really wished Vanitas would just go to sleep or something. Sure, everything that attacked them was quickly dispatched by one of them but measuring everyone based on that was a bit unfair. ' _Could you please stop yelling in my head.'_

A migraine was starting to form from having to deal with him. Vanitas, if he could, would have rolled his eyes at this. " _I'm sorry, but there kind of nothing to do within our heart,"_ Seriously, all he had was himself standing on his station of awakening and that was basically it. " _Maybe I would shut up if I could walk around for a bit in control of our body?"_

That was never going to happen. The last thing he was going to do was let Vanitas run off and start doing whatever he wanted in his body, least of all his friends. Just thinking about how he'll act to them and vice versa. Terra stopped and held his hand out to stop his two companions. "Terra, what is it?"

He didn't have to answer for them as mists of Darkness popped into being as several Armored Knight Heartless materialized along with several Soldiers and finally a handful of Shadows appearing from the ground to join them. The three Keyblade wielders immediately summoned up their weapons. "Heartless here?"

Aqua's gaze hardened as she was right. Immediately she jumped forward and took out several of them in a strike. Years of living within the Realm of Darkness had taught her to attack the Heartless at the first opportunity. Ven raced forward taking out an Armored Knight while kicking a Shadow to the ground. He tossed his Keyblade taking out the Soldiers behind and in the return trip almost hitting it before it hid into the ground.

The ground was torn open by Terra knocking it out and into few remaining Heartless moved back slightly to regroup as the three Keyblade wielders moved in to press the attack. A surge of Darkness sprang up from below the Heartless as they were pulled out of there. Ven looked at this wondering what had just happened. " _Isn't it obvious someone took the Heartless from fighting us."_

' _That's just great…'_  Someone was controlling the Heartless and likely had no idea what they even were. Either that or they did and was likely using them to take over this world.

Aqua and Terra were more concern as to why the Heartless were here, to begin with. With Xehanort's defeat, the Heartless slowly started to disappear from the worlds. Aqua looked at Terra he looked at were the Heartless had been the stench of Darkness hanged in the air. "You don't think whatever force brought us here brought the Heartless here as well?"

"No, there was something that took them," The smell caused him to clutched his fists as anger. The smell reminded him of a certain Heartless that he had spent years enslaved too. "The smell is similar to the Darkness of Xehanort's Heartless."

Aqua paused wondering what he was talking about when it hit her. For a brief period of time she had almost been consumed by Darkness, she almost became  _it_. A Heartless formed from a Keyblade Wielder that fell to Darkness. "You mean there is a Darkling?"

"Darkling?" Ven held his head for a moment as something flashed through his eyes. It was of a town of people with Keyblades and then it was gone. ' _What was that?!'_

His answer came from Vanitas whose voice was surprisingly filled with shock. " _That was memories… memories of something before we ended up in Xehanort's care."_

Vanitas tried to see if he could reach out to them again. The only thing they managed to get was a list of names. Brain, Lauriam, Elrena, Ephemer, Strelitzia, and Skuld. Ven looked at his Keyblade as something formed over it. "Ven?"

He blocked out the voice of Aqua as he held out Wayward Wind. Before their eyes, it was covered in light as its form shifted into a form that it hadn't had for a long time. Ven blinked as he looked at the Keyblade in his hand. A name that he didn't know of until now and yet it felt like he had known all along. "Missing Ache."

"Missing Ache is that the name of the keychain?" The both of them looked at Ven wondering if his sudden episode was due to something relating to his memories. Truth be told Namine had offered to see about when they told her about not remembering how he met Chirithy. They never got around to asking Ven about it.

Ven looked at his Keyblade unsure if he could even call it a keychain. This felt just like Wayward Wind. "I think so…"

* * *

Having watched the fight through one of the dark projections the Darkling turned over as the remaining Heartless appeared next to it. It wasn't ready yet to begin large scale attacks on the inhabitants of this world. Not until it took note of all potential problems but the Heartless didn't seem to care that much on where they entered the world. Even heading for the Keyblade wielders who were the biggest threat to them.

Self-preservation wasn't an immediate instinct most Heartless had. Still, it had its advantages as the Heartless had overwhelmed countless worlds due to sheer numbers of a fearless dark tide consuming all in its path. Just ask those who were trapped on worlds that were overrun by them. "We still haven't located the heart of the world."

Moving to the other worlds in this strange layer of reality was fustrantly impossible for the Heartless. All the pathways were closed tightly by the Old Worlds connections and barriers. If they managed to consume this world then the locks would be broken allowing them to consume the rest of these ancient worlds. "Perhaps, it is best I think about recruiting some helpers from the local inhabitants."

Speaking of locals she took a look at the Tomb of Nazarick. The Fluttering that was tasked with spying on them and the area around them from above hadn't noticed much change in their follow off world travelers. Entries into the building and the complex was slow and from what could be seen they were on high alert. Regardless they may not know the limits of their strength but perhaps there could be a way to get the information they need.

Several Heartless appeared behind it awaiting orders. Holding its claws out Darkness gathered and soon took shape into something. "Keep watch for anyone with strong Darkness in their hearts and report back to me."

* * *

Albedo looked over the screen before her noticing no change at all. Still, her eyes fell on three names on the three in front of her. Riku, Kairi, and Sora three members of the Guardians of Light who he confirmed were walking about the world right now. He had already meet Sora who didn't seem to recognize him at all. Even though he was in disguise she was a bit insulted he just ran away ignoring or even not recognizing him.

To her side, Demiurge looked at the screens somewhat intrigued by the guild. Several questions arise about how well they operated and their abilities and level of power were on his mind. On one hand, they could be a bunch of weaklings or they might be a potential rival to their Lord. ' _Knowing their attentions would be a priority going forward.'_

The talks about white and black creatures that were seemingly not native to this world was another thing. He was going to have to look for such creatures. A bit of a challenge as he had no idea were to first look for them and killing them was likely out of the question given they seem to turn into a mist that disappears rather quickly. Already plans of how to capture them were starting to form in his head. ' _I should ask Lord Ainz as soon as he gets back.'_

He stopped as he felt like someone was watching him. Turning around he found that no one was following him. Was he starting to become paranoid like Shalltear? ' _I can't escape this feeling,'_  Demiurge turned around and continued on. He pushed away this brief period of paranoia as nothing of importance. ' _It's nothing at all.'_

* * *

Lea, Xion, and Roxas walked out of the Corridor of Darkness that Lea had opened up. According to Xion, Namine was nearby and while she couldn't get the exact location from her she did at least know in which direction to go. With no other options on the table Lea summoned up a Corridor of Darkness and here they were. "Everything looks a little overcast don't you think?"

It should be midday last time they checked and somehow now it was almost like it was night. Looking up Lion's mouth gasped in surprise as she pointed upwards. "Look."

Her two friends looked up and were created with the sight of something that was awfully familiar to them. Floating in the sky above them surrounded by clouds was what looked like the Castle That Never Was. The Nobody symbols looked like they had been replaced by Heart symbols and it was slightly less white than before, but still, it was the castle. "Ok, anyone want to tell me what  _that_  is doing here?"

"You think whatever brought us here brought it here as well?" Roxas now wondered how they were going to get up there. Turning back to Lea he figured they could go with the easy way. "You think you can open a Corridor of Darkness up there?"

Lea his hand out as the feeling of Darkness sprang out from his hand. Even with the Organization defeated Lea could still open up these pathways much like Riku could. The dark energy sprang up before collapsing as the corridor failed open. "I don't think I can."

* * *

Going on this little quest had been a bit of a learning experience for Ainz. The Swords of Darkness had been a big help in understanding the basic ongoing of adventurers within this world. Until they unknowingly brought up his former guild members. Right now he was taking a moment to cool off for himself and think about his friends.

He looked up at the stars as he wondered how they were doing with their lives. The sound of leaves rustling. Then a lanky white creature dropped down from the trees on its head its limbs following around being it bounced upon its head back on its feet. ' _Is this one of the white creatures?'_

Ainz watched it as it hung it's head down and didn't seem to realize that someone was standing right there. The Overlord looked at its features noticing the zipper banging from its mouth. It was almost like it was wearing a white suit all over its rather skinny body. "What are you?"

The Dusk didn't seem to register him. Its movements told Ainz that whatever it was it didn't have a solid bone structure or a bone structure at all. A second later it turned what he thought was its face at him. An emotionless voice came from it despite not showing any signs of a mouth moving. "Nothing… I have nothing," The creature didn't seem to register Ainz even if it knew he was there. "Darkness has taken everything…"

Finally, it turned to Ainz as the zipper on its face opened up reliving teeth underneath it. It immediately jumped at him while Ainz brought one of the swords he had at it. The Dusk didn't seem to block it. It broke apart without even trying to do anything to avoid it and then before Ainz's eyes it seemed to fade away after breaking apart. ' _Ok, what the hell just happened?'_

Unknown to either of them a Fluttering hanging from a tree as watched the whole thing. The creature's eyes looked at Ainz locking on to the armor disguised undead. As soon as no one was looking it fell from its tree and disappeared in a mist.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before anyone asks the plot of the series isn't completely thrown off the rails. At least not yet. You will know when that time comes.


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, this really took longer then it was needed. That of which I figured was do to how hard it was to get this chapter just right. Anyway, it's back now. Hope you enjoy.

"Where am I?" Albedo looked on at the rolling sky overhead. Clear despite there being clouds as she stood on top of an endless expense of clear water with a crystal surface just underneath. She had just finally gone to sleep and suddenly she found herself underwater and pulled herself up and into this strange place.

Speaking of which she wasn't even wet in the least despite the whole being submerged. The only things besides herself were a bunch of sparkling lights that formed vague star shapes. "Lord Ainz?!" No response whatsoever. Albedo looked at her ring as she activated it to teleport her back to the tomb. Nothing happened as if it had been either rendered powerless or the distance was impossible to cross. "This can't be happening!"

Panic starting to fill her as she looked around. Something must have dragged her here. This question was what? "Alright, it's my move."

Turning around she saw four figures sitting around a crystal table. One of them picked up something before placing it down. Looking up with their black hood covering his face he, going by the shape and voice, pointed to her. "Oh, hey look someone crossed over!"

Brain, PoD, and Joshua all turned to where the Master of Masters pointed too. The four of them stared as the Succubus shot them a glare. An aura of killer intend came from her as she looked at the four of them. "Are you responsible for bringing me here!?"

"Graviga," Suddenly she was on her knees as her body weighed several hundred times what she was used too. If his face was visible one would have seen annoyance on the face of the Master of Masters as he cast the spell. "Now, I'm going to stop the spell and you are going to calm down ok."

With a snap, the force let up while Brain turned to him. "You realize that doesn't work right you just gave her more reason to be wary."

"Oh, sure but it's better to give a taste of the level of power she's dealing with first," That and he was annoyed by her actions. He was aware of what was going on with the world while they were playing this game and figured it was best to send a message. Even if she wasn't going to remember this. "Anyway, this is the Final World the last stop in the Realm of Death."

"Realm of Death?" None of this was making sense. She wasn't dead, at least nothing had killed her, so why she even here? For that matter who were these four.

"You're not dead the Realm of Sleep and the Realm of Death have murky barriers and occasionally people crossover," The PoD moved a piece as he answered. Out the corner of his eye, he saw a piece from Joshua turn into one of his own. "You won't remember any of this when you awake so it really doesn't matter in the end."

Albedo looked around the so-called Final World seeing literally nothing around her but these four. With nothing else she looked at the board they were playing on noticing each piece they were playing with.  _'Wait, one of those looks like…'_  Albedo didn't get to finish that thought as she was pulled under the water and disappeared as her body awoke from its sleep.

* * *

Riku and Sora looked on as Kairi flew overhead. Once Sora saw the wings she had he had commented that maybe she could fly. The day after this and Kairi decided to test it out. To her surprise, it was rather easy for her to get the hang of it all things considered. "So, what's happened with the others?"

Sora's question brought Riku's attention away from Kairi practicing in the air. A smile formed on his face as he figured that he would ask. "Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have returned to their duties in their world, Ven, Aqua, and Terra much the same although Aqua decided to train Kairi," He pointed to the Keyblade armor piece. "Roxas, Xion, and Axel moved into Twilight Town and finally Namine been living with Ansem the Wise as an apprentice."

Kairi landed in front of both of them. The now changed Succubus had felt a great thrill with just flying through the air. "Hey, I spotted a village not far from here."

As the three of them was about to head in the direction Riku stopped. Summoning his Keyblade he let loose a Dark Firaga into the nearby trees. From the explosion, a few hidden Heartless were seen being tossed others were destroyed. Almost immediately did several Heartless spawn into the area around them. Sora and Kairi didn't waste any time as they summoned their Keyblades and jumped into the fight with Riku.

* * *

Lea, Roxas, and Xion had spent a few moments trying to come up with a way to get up to the Castle That Never Was. With Corridors of Darkness out of the picture, they started to run through other methods. "Maybe," Roxas summoned Oathkeeper into his hand. "I think I remembered Sora doing this."

Pointing the Keyblade up at the Castle light gathered at the tip before a beam shot out from the tip. As it hit the Castle a transparent bridge formed from the Castle twisting and turning before it touched down right in front of them. "I'm surprised that actually worked."

The three of them ascended up the bridge finding themselves at the lower gate of the Castle. No sooner as the last of them got off the bridge did it disappear although none of them noticed. In a flash, their Keyblades appeared in their hands as they readied themselves for a welcoming party. "Strange you think whoever is in control of the Castle would decide to attack us?"

Both Roxas and Xion had to agree with Lea on this. There was something off about this place. It almost felt inviting which was something the three of them hadn't ever expected to feel when concerning this place.  _"Hello?"_

Lea almost set off a fireball in surprise as the three of them heard Namine's voice within their heads. "Yo, Namine is that you?"

 _"Yes, I am speaking to you all using my powers,"_  Lea didn't know that she could do something like that. Then again he had barely gotten to know her at all as Axel and when she was apart of Kairi also didn't count.

"Are you here?"

 _"Yes,"_ On her end Namine had wandered around the Castle. Despite the seemingly bare whiteness if the place she knew it wasn't as it once was.  _"This place it seems is a gift of some sort that was tied with whatever had brought us here."_

The former headquarters of the Organization and Xehanort's gathering place didn't sound like much of a gift. That is assuming it was them who were given it. The three of them didn't really have much in the way of pleasant memories tied to it. "So, do you know why we are here?"

* * *

There hadn't been another encounter with a white creature like the last one. As it had disappeared after it was attacked there was nothing that remained of its body. Yet, there still was something fundamentally off about the encounter.  _'It didn't attack me so much as it wanted me to attack it.'_

Speaking of which it had said something about having nothing and that Darkness had taken everything. Ainz was brought out of his thoughts when he saw a few villagers race out from the fields from where he was standing. Getting closer he watched as someone walked to the village with everyone looking on in surprise. "Impossible I saw those black creatures attack him and he faded away!"

They were talking about the attack on the village that happened before the one he stopped. The black creature that had taken something from them. "I don't know what happened one moment this thing had reached into me and the next I woke up right where it had attacked me."

It almost sounded like a respawn to him. No sooner as he thought about this did a dark mist appear on top of the town's buildings. The villagers looked on in a panic as more of the things from before appear, Soldier and Shadow Heartless unknown to everyone there. "Their back!"

The Goblins that Eri had summoned and the Swords of Darkness all turned to them ready for a fight. Instead, they all faded away in balls of Darkness. While everyone in the village seemed to look around panicked at the possibility of being attacked again Ainz just stared at where they had been.  _'Those are the creatures that they talked about?'_

If you asked him they didn't look all that threatening. The ones that were completely black actually looked somewhat cute. Although looks could be deceiving. "Do you think the Wise King of the Forest knows where these things came from?"

"What makes you think he would know?" Ainz blocked out the rest of this conversation. His thoughts were more on the sudden appearance of these creatures. On the other hand, he might as well take a look at this so-called Wise King of The Forest.

* * *

There was almost an air such something dark and terrible within the forest. The deeper one went for some reason the greater this feeling became. It was almost like something had invaded the world. Ainz could almost sense the same feeling as he wandered deeper into the forest than before. "Strange it's almost like the place is darker than it should be."

His first thought was some kind of passive magical effect was the case of it. Yet, something deep within him didn't believe it one bit. He couldn't describe it but there was this feeling within him that seemed to know what this was and was unsettled, dare he even say it scared, by the feeling in the air.  _'Does it have something to do with those creatures?'_

Narberal, however, couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched. Perhaps, her Lord had noticed it as well. Out the corner of her eye, she thought she thought saw something within the trees. She mentally shook her head at this. It was likely just whatever was within the air. Perhaps, the forest had an effect on one's feelings which was why her Lord didn't see any change.

The sounds of something coming their way soon echoed across the trees along with a trail of dust. Inwardly Ainz was regretting that he had gone in with just him and Narberal. Drawing his swords he figured he could just take back its leg or something as proof. From the shadows, a snake-like tail tried to strike into him with he blocked with both swords without much issue. "So you can survive my first attack, amiable it is."

The way it was speaking was surprising, to say the least. Ainz was almost taken back by it as the voice echoed in the forest. "What the hell."

"We do not abide interlopers," Although, the owner of it didn't want to bring up the fact that technically it was doing just that. More out of fear for the ones that were wondering around. "Leave now or perish by my claws!"

"Forget it why don't you stop hiding and face me," Ainz decided to give a little taunt to further push the creature to come out. "Are you shy or are you afraid to face me?"

"Insolent whelp very well face upon my form and trembling awe!" The creature moved out from the shadows and to its opponents.

Ainz was stopped at just what he was seeing. Mostly on account that this was in fact not what he was picturing. "I don't believe it."

The Wise King chuckled at this completely misunderstanding what was going on. "Your fear is expected knave, have any last words do you?"."

"Actually I think your kind before tell me are you a Djungarian hamster?"

The giant hamster seemed to forget all about the fact that they were going to fight at this. There was actually a hint of hope within the eyes of the hamster. "I am tell me stranger how it that you came to know of my species?"

That was going to be rather hard to explain. Especially, since Narberal was with him and like with Albedo likely had no idea about them being once just data. "You well, uh, how should I put this," Thinking quickly he decided to remain vague on the details. "One of my old allies had a pet that looked just like you."

"Tis true?" Joy was heard within the hamster's voice. "Then please tell me were I might this person and my people!" The animosity from before was almost completely forgotten by the hamster as it focused on the first possible lead on members of its kind. "My duty as a living creature is to produce offspring to continue my species it is!"

This wasn't at all what Ainz had pictured this happening. He honestly expected something more threatening and instead, he was now talking to a giant hamster about finding a mate. Simply put this whole thing was extremely awkward. "I don't think that would work your size would hinder that."

To the Wise King, this was a let down to hear. "Truly unfortunate to hear this is, understand I do." With that, the Wise King remembered that they were even talking right now. "Enough banter it's time to fight as nature intended, to the death!"

After having to go through something like this he wasn't much in the mood for it. Besides he had expected something a bit greater than a giant hamster. The things he did to achieve his goal. "Aura of despair level 1!"

Just like that, the hamster fell over in terror. To say this was anticlimactic would be putting it bluntly. "It was just a giant animal."

Ainz just looked at the creature before him unsure what to even say. For all the build-up that they had given it the Wise King of the Forest was not much to ride home about. Perhaps compared to most adventurers and the inhabitants of this world they were amazing but to him no at all. Aura who was sitting in a tree branch having watched the whole thing looked at the fallen creature and at her lord. "Are you going to kill it?"

The Wise King couldn't believe what she was hearing. It had only been a few days since she met that thing that wanted her heart and now this! There had to be some kind of cruel deity at work.  _'Why?'_

* * *

It seemed like the Castle was, for the most part, the same as it was. At least in terms of its hallways and room layout. However, they did notice several changes like doors were there wasn't before, the Nobody symbols being replaced, and to their surprise, some rooms were actually more live. "Ok if I recall there wasn't any of this here."

The current room had tapestries each one depicting the what looked like each of them, and the other Guardians of Light, as they currently looked. Xion looked at her's which had one half of her face the same as it usually was and the other side with the blank featureless face that it had been when she woke up on this world. Roxas looked at both Sora's and Riku's noticing no change to either of them. "Well, it looks like both Riku and Sora are the same as they always are."

Lea took sight of Ventus noticing the elongated ears on the side of his head and then back to Roxas. He did take on traits from both of them but even now as his own person he still was. "There you are."

The three were pulled from their thoughts as Namine walked into the room with them. For a moment there was a glow within their pockets as they pulled out their Wayfinders. Roxas took his out before turning his attention over to the blonde turned succubus. "Namine do you know what's going on?"

"Somewhat," She had reached out to Sora chain of memories to see if he knew what had happened. Even Sora didn't have any understanding of what had happened. With that, she had reached out through the new connections. "I think it has something to do with Sora's connection to all of us and to the worlds via the X-Blade."

"Well, that doesn't really explain anything," They had already guessed that it had something to do with Sora already. This wasn't really anything new. "Do you know why we got changed into whatever we are at least?"

Namine shook her head as she looked down. This was something she couldn't figure out. Although she did have an idea. "Whatever pulled us here likely changed us to fit into this world," Namine looked at her new wings noticing the strangeness of having another set of limbs. "Although, I don't think this is anything like the spell Donald would use."

"So, your saying this might be permanent?" Xion really didn't know what to feel about being whatever she was for the rest of her admittedly short life. Then again from the fact that she used to be seen sever people thought of her in her former replica body perhaps it was just her returning to something similar.

"I don't know for sure but finding out whatever happened to us is something we'll likely need everyone else," She turned over to Lea. The Wayfinders everyone had been pulling them to this place but with Lea, who could open Corridors of Darkness, they could speed it up. "Lea if I tell you where to go do you think you can get the others?"

Lea shrugged his shoulders at this. Getting to them wouldn't be much of an issue. "Sure, but I don't think I'll be able to open a Corridor to here," Namine walked up to him and handed him a card, like the ones from Castle Oblivion, with the image of the Castle That Never Was on it. "What's this?"

"It's a card I made from the memory of this place with it you can get past the defense mechanism of the Castle." She did have some time to see that apparently, the Organization had a measure to deal with Darkness incursions. Said measures were usually only in place to keep the Heartless out but allow Nobodies, and other users of Darkness, into the Castle. "I'll have to make one for Riku when he gets here."

Pocketing the card Lea decided to test if he could summon up a Corridor of Darkness. Darkness pulled up from the ground in front of him as the pathway through Darkness appeared in front of them. "Alright," He turned over to Namine. "Who do you want to get first?"

A few moments later Lea walked out of a Corridor of Darkness and was soon greyed by a Firaza going straight for him. Without thinking he raised his hand and nullified the spell damage thanks to his inherent control over fire. "You know if that wasn't me that would have hurt!"

"Axel!" Sora unsummoned his Keyblade with embarrassment. As soon as he saw the corridor he reacted. Lea looked around at the destroyed landscape with the trio from Destiny Islands in the middle of it.

Trees were torn apart or charred from fire. The ground was rather wet either from Water spells or melted Blizzard spells. The ground was blasted apart from whatever spells or strong attacks that the three had down. "Well, this looks like a warzone."

"It kind of was as the Heartless kept trying to swarm us," What started out as a few dozen quickly turned it hundred and before they knew it the whole area around them was in ruins. Riku wondered if the nearby village had overheard their fighting. If they had they didn't come by to see what was happening. "How did you manage to find us?"

"You can thank Namine for that," Lea turned around and summoned up a Corridor of Darkness. "Come on, I have to go get the others after I drop you three off."

"Where?"

"A gift from the worlds apparently," The four of them walked through and came out within the tapestry filled room with Roxas, Xion, and Namine waiting for them. "Alright, who's next on the list?"

* * *

Aura had noticed an unusual set of track's that just seemed to appear out of nowhere not long after her Lord took them as his pet. Looking up she noticed that the moon was still almost full and yet the Forest was darker than it should be. "Something isn't right here," Her ears picked up the faint sound of a fallen branch breaking. "So, something it's tracking me?"

Whatever it is Aura knew she could take it. After all, if Hamsuke was the strongest thing here then nothing could possibly threaten her. Regardless maybe she could use whatever was trying to track her as a pelt. Hiding her presence with [ **Erase Presence** ] from she turned around in the location of where the sound had come from.  _'Time for the hunter to become the hunted.'_

Unknown to her the thing that was wandering around still could sense her presence. Claw marks suddenly formed in the ground as something invisible followed its prey. Aura after half an hour of searching couldn't find a single trace of whatever it was that she had heard as we neared a rocky clearing. "Well, it's rather late I should head back…"

She stopped this train of thought as she thought she heard something. Turning around she was suddenly meet with an invisible force slamming into her chest and knocking her back into the rocks.  _'That hurt…'_

Aura pulled herself up as she looked around her senses on high alert. On instinct, she jumped out of the way as something slammed into the rock in front of her and broke it apart. For a moment the invisibility of the creature disappeared as it let out a roar at her. It wasn't like any creature Aura had ever seen or heard about. "Is it one of the black creatures?"

This would make sense actually. If this was, in fact, one of them then Aura had to capture it. Bringing out her whip she got ready to fight it as the once again invisible Dark Thorn charged at her. In the trees, a Fluttering watched as Aura jumped out of the way of the Dark Thorn' s strike before attacking herself. The Heartless unlike the bulk of its breather was made of harder stuff and instead of breaking apart took the hit and even attempted to retaliate back. Dark energy gathered within its mouth before it let loose s Dark Firaga spell aimed right at her.

Aura jumped out of the way while the trees and other things in the way of it were not so lucky as the area exploded. The otherworldly creature eyes locked on to Aura who was still able to notice where it was. "That spell was a lot more powerful then it looked."

It was clear that it wasn't tier magic. Yet, another reason to capture it in her mind. As the Heartless moved in for another attack two figures appeared and slammed into it. "Nice work Fenny, Quadracile!"

Her two pets were beside her as she jumped down from the tree. The Dark Thorn got back up and glared at the two interlopers. Before it could attack, however, it felt the pull of its leader. It turned around and seemed to retreat. "Running away alread-"

Out of the ground, a pillar of Shadows frenzied into a tornado-like formation stopped her in her tracks. The Demon Tower turned what amounted as its head towards her their eyes red and shot out at the three of them causing them to almost instinctively get out of the way. Aura readied her whip in surprise but the frenzied mass of Heartless quickly changed direction and before she realized it they slammed into her and knocked her into the ground.

Both her beasts jumped in to protect their mistress but all their attacks seemed to do was knock out a few of the small creatures from the mass either causing them to fade away or land out of it. The both of them did succeed in one aspect. It's attention turned to them.

Quadracile was swept into it as it turned it's head down and moved almost effortlessly to slammed it into the other beast. Then it seemingly dived into the ground fading into the soil. After a few moments of nothing happening it was clear that it was gone. The Fluttering watching all of this jumped off from its tree and flew away. Its leader's little test was over.

Aura groaned as she got back up. "I have to tell Lord Ainz about this."

* * *

Lighting arched for a few moments as a dark swirling vortex formed in the middle of a small clearing. A dark pulse was sent through the clearing as the vortex exploded. Someone was kneeling where the vortex had once been. Standing up they looked around at the environment that they had found themselves in. "Rejecting me was a huge mistake."

Raising their hand up they called for a portal but none came. It seemed that wherever they were it was too far to summon one up. The sound of something in the trees caught their attention as a Fluttering flew overhead. "The Heartless."

Where there was Heartless there and as always a certain warrior shouldn't be too far behind. By their own account, assuming for the difference in time within the Realm of Darkness, it had been at most a full year or so since their duel. "The Keyblade user that Cloud sees as a friend."

A lone black feathered wing raised itself to its full glory as the silver-haired man looked up at the sky. He stopped and immediately drew his seven-foot long sword pointing it just at the face of the Darkling who came to lead the Heartless. He stared into its glowing eyes and knew that it wasn't like the rest. A smirk formed on its face. "I take it your the one called Sephiroth?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, who wasn't expecting that? Yeah, I think I should give a general rating on how the Heartless scale as a whole. That and how the magic the Guardians use work as a whole giving it is based on Final Fantasy. So, first for the Guardians of Light the power of their spells are based as you can guess on who cast it, what grade it eas, and which type of Keyblade it was. A magically inclined caster like Aqua and Donald would by nature have a Firaga spell stronger then a physical-based user like Terra or Riku, or a balanced one like Sora.
> 
> I'm still trying to figure out how to go about it. The games aren't a good reference point as well they are first to be balanced out and Final Fantasy lore not as helpful (except with the flare series) as I would like but the one thing I can safely say that the stronger spells and techniques are on a high end of what Tier magic can do.
> 
> Now for the Heartless most varieties are cannon folder like we expected. However, given that this world is closer to the Realm of Darkness they are stronger. 10-30 can be considered the "level" for most being mainly what would be called early and some midgame kind. 30-50 are for upgraded versions and certain late-game varieties. 50-70 are for the more difficult late-game ones and minibosses while the strongest of the boss-type you see in the games to from 70-100.


	6. Chapter 5

Lea walked out of the Corridor of Darkness as the last trio exited out with him. Mickey, Donald, and Goofy looked at everyone in the room and the room itself. Sora looked at his friends as he noticed what had happened to the three of them. Instead of being just an anthropomorphic mouse, dog, and duck they each were surprisingly more human-like in proportions. Donald and Goofy almost jumped on Sora the moment they saw him. "Sora!"

Sora fell over when the both of them slammed into him with a hug. The Keyblade's Chosen groaned. Sure he knew that to them it had been months but for him, it had only been a few days. "Nice to see you both."

A few minutes later the thirteen Guardians of Light were together within what was once the Organization's Grey Area. Namine had informed them about all she could know about what has happened and then everyone turned to Sira. He had explained what happened to him after disappearing before their eyes. "So, the card that Luxord have you caused this?"

"I think it had a hand in it but I am not completely sure," It seemed that there could have been more to it. He was in the Final World, at just the edge of Kingdom Hearts, that had to have a hand in it.

Lea looked at the dark overcast out the window. Seeing how they still had no idea how they got here it almost looked like they were stuck here. "Hey, Riku have you managed to open a corridor to another world?"

Riku shook his head. It was something he had thought about doing but he could feel the unstable currents underlying the pathways off world. "I don't think that would be a good idea as, besides the force of the currents, I can also smell the Heartless moving through the corridors in massive numbers."

The redhead was getting as what Riku was talking about. Back when he was with the Organization they made it clear to not linger within the pathways for too long. Heartless used the very same pathways and back when the Heartless were invading the Realm of Light in force they would many times come into contact with them and had to fight through them. "How bad are we talking?"

"If I had to guess the whole world is being circled by whole armies worth of them at minimum," Getting a clear idea was hard as after a certain point the Darkness just gets so thick that the numbers can get masked. What was more confusing was why the corridors were so chaotic for the lack of a better term.  _'The Realm of Light and In Between are stable and even heading into or near the Realm of Darkness is still somewhat stable.'_

"Well, great we're stuck here for the time being it seems," Lea crossed his arms and looked at the room they were in. He was somewhat glad that they at least had some place to be while within this world. "Seeing how we're stuck here I guess we need to change how this place looks."

Everyone was in agreement with Lea on this. The rather lifeless feel of the Castle That Never Was likely worked for Xemnas and Xehanort. However, for them, this place just felt empty. "There a way to do that to the whole castle," Namine had felt it while she had been using her powers to locate the other Guardians. "There is one problem its located were the thrones used to be and only the Lord of the castle or the leader of our group can open the pathway to it."

That did sound about right to Roxas and Lea. Whenever Xemnas wanted to call them into a meeting it was he who allowed them to enter Where Nothing Gathers. Riku gave Namine a questioning look after hearing this. "Wait, weren't me Mickey, Donald and Goofy managed to get there before?"

"Yes, but Xehanort likely let you enter in order to tell Mickey about his plans hoping for you all to form the seven lights he needed," After hearing this both Riku and Mickey had to admit that it was exactly what had happened.

"Alright, so we just have to pick a leader and then we can change how this castle looks like with what Aqua did to the Land of Departure?" Sora was given a nod in confirmation from Namine. With that out of the way that just left the question on who should lead them.

* * *

Aqua couldn't believe it. She had been voted in as the leader of the Guardians of Light. On one hand, this did make sense because as far as she was aware she was the only one who knew how to alter something like the Castle That Never Was. Even so, it wasn't like she couldn't have taught whoever was elected about how to do it anyway. Regardless it seems that she had won. "I don't know what to say."

"Well, if I'm being honest the only two real choices are you and Mickey," Lea explained saying what nearly everyone was thinking. He crossed his arms in front of himself as he leaned on the wall. "Compared to my last boss I have to say this is a huge improvement."

Terra could only recall vague memories of his half Nobody but even he knew how badly Xemnas had acted forwards his subordinates. No doubt due to Xehanort's influence and desire to use the Organization as a means to create his thirteen Seekers of Darkness. Aqua turned her attention over to Namine. "Take me to where I need to go."

A few minutes later they all stood in front of a dead end wall. Namine motioned for Aqua to step forward to it. As she did it suddenly changed opening up as if the castle recognized her new position. Where Nothing Gathers, the former meeting place for the Organization, the place where Master Xehanort was reformed, and now the seat of the Guardians of Light. Each of the thirteen thrones lowered themselves waiting for their new owners to their place.

As soon as they all took their seat the thrones moved up as the thirteen of them looked at the platform in the center. Four symbols adore it. Mickey head, Sora's crown, The Nobody symbol, and the Mark of Mastery. Namine pulled out her Wayfinder and looked at everyone else. "We have to open the heart if the castle with our Wayfinders."

Be after another they each pulled them out. They each started to glow before flying out of their hands. Circling through the air they came to rest forming a heart shape within the air. On the platform below a Keyhole opened up revealing the heart of the Castle That Never Was. In a flash, each of the Keyblades wielders by those who could use them appeared in their hands. Pointing hers at the keyhole Stormfall was the first to shoot its light into the keyhole. The rest soon followed suit one after another until ten lights pointed into the keyhole. Donald, Goofy, and Namine each started to glow as well as the light moved from each of them to the nearest Keyblade wielder. With that, the keyhole was engulfed in blinding light as the sound of door unlocking, and then being locked, was heard echoing throughout the castle.

A pillar of light shot out from the Castle as its form was soon bathed in the glow breaking apart the overhanging shadows. When the light finally died down Aqua found herself within a room that almost reminded her of an actual throne room. She looked to her left and right seeing a town of smaller thrones each one seated almost like a U shaped table existed. To her right was Riku, Terra, Donald, Goofy, Lea, and Kairi. To her left was Mickey, Sora, Roxas, Ven, Xion, and Namine. Each one seated in that order.

Lea took a look at the walls seeing the four symbols from before edged in a repeating pattern. The Wayfinders slowed floated back to their owners. "Wow, I also can't believe that this is the Castle That Never Was."

"Do you have to keep calling it that?" Ven took his Wayfinder back as he looked at Lea. "I mean we completely changed it so shouldn't it deserve a new name?"

"Cor Cathedrali Basilica," The words left Aqua's mouth as she recalled an old tale about an ancient fortress of Keyblade wielders. It was one of her favorites books freeing up. Everyone looked at her as she realized she had actually said that "It means Cathedral of Hearts"

* * *

Sephiroth looked out from the cliff he was standing as a light wind blow over him. This world was nothing like Hollow Bastion. The place where he had been born, extracted from the heart alongside the light of Cloud. Strange he hadn't bothered to keep track of his "sister" until the time both him and Cloud had their final fight. Turning around he watched as a Corridor of Darkness formed. The Darkling walked out of it brushing dust off of its robe. "Well, I must admit that vampire could back up its claims."

"Do you think it was one of the, what was it called, players?" Sephiroth had been informed about the world he was currently in by the Heartless. Apparently, when he was reforming he might have gotten caught up in the tide of Heartless and ended up in this world. As for why he couldn't open a portal to Cloud it was thanks to just where they where located in creation.

The Darkling laughed at this. "No, I think it was one of the programs that came with them," The Heartless formed a ball of dark energy in its claws. "I left a little parting gift in the form of weakening the bonds put on their heart soon their Darkness will make itself known and with no idea how to deal with it…"

Sephiroth understood perfectly what would happen. The Darkness would overtake their heart and all that would be left would be a Heartless. "What about the body that you recovered?" He was speaking about the broken body that he had seen her work on. "Are you going to revive them?"

While the owner of the body did have a heart filled with it and said heart had gone to the Realm of Darkness making retrieval possible, the Darkling wasn't about to just revive the dead. Besides, there was no way to ensure their loyalty once they were brought back. "No, I am currently in the market for a temporary vessel and their body would do nicely."

Both of them looked out as they felt something. A wave of light had briefly erupted somewhere on the world. Appearing in a mist of Darkness a Fluttering answered the summons of its master. "Go see what that was," The Heartless disappeared for a moment before reappearing crushing into the ground as an unseen force deflected it from wherever it was heading. "That's just great."

* * *

First, he learns from Albedo that Shalltear had gone rogue, brought on by the effect of a World Item, and now Aura had informed him of her run-in with a pair of black creatures. The first was a mistake on his part assuming that no one in this world could have such things. His first thought was that it was the other Guild but apart of him suspected that might not be the case. In the few days after deciding to leave the Tomb to explore the world, he noticed a lot of similarities to the game he used to play. It stood to reason he was not the first one here.

There were a few missing Guilds and players which everyone just assumed had been deleted. Seeing how he somehow ended up here he wasn't so sure about it anymore. The run-in with the black creatures was what was more unsettling. One of them was able to ambush Aura even when she had tried to remain undetected. From what she had reported it wasn't a weakling and had an unknown the of magic that seemed stronger than it looked. The other creature, a tornado made from smaller ones had knocked both her and two of her pets around almost like it was nothing before disappearing.  _'It appeared the moment the other one retreated which means they have some form of organization.'_

If his passive didn't act up he would be panicking at this. The fact that they were organized and if neither of them was the leader he started to wonder how powerful they were. For all, he knew they could have been the one to use the World Item on Shalltear!  _'I'm really am walking into a trap aren't I?'_

Looking at the armors and items of his Guild he remembered what he had planned. If worse comes to worse he could get the floor guardians and use his friend's gear to help him. Sure, none of it prove sufficient then at the very least he'll finally get to see his mother again.

* * *

Sora and Roy stood out in the new look out of the newly named Cor Cathedrali Basilica. The castle was completely transformed. While it still floated in the air and was still shaped and made to be a fortress it was much more alive. Room for gardens existed, mural glasses windows, and less of a white and grey color scheme was just a few of the changes. In fact, it almost felt like a more fortress version of the Land of Departure. "You know this view is surprisingly beautiful."

"Yeah, but it can't beat our island," Riku was in agreement with him on that. Going on life-altering adventures to stop one man in one form or another from destroying the universe made one appreciate things they had. "Hey Riku, do you think we'll ever find our way home?"

He looked at Sora almost surprised by that question. "You should already know the answer," He pointed to Sora's heart. "Its always lead you to home in the end."

Sora placed his hand over his heart. The words that Yen Sid had always repeated echoed through his head.  _'My your heart be your guiding key.'_  Right now it told him that they would find a way home. Until then it looked like they would make some new friends. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it," The two of them returned to looking out before Riku decided to ask a question. "So, you have you actually managed to keep all of your power this time around?"

Given the track record that Sora had with extreme metaphysical stress it was only right for Riku to ask. Especially given how hard he had abused the Power of Waking. Using it to bring the Guardians of Light back from the dead while rewriting time was pushing it and then chasing after Kairi's heart after she had died was seemingly too much for his body to take. "Yeah, I have no idea why this time was different."

A thought crossed Riku's mind after hearing this. "Do you think it was due to the X-blade?"

For a moment he wondered what Riku meant before realizing he was talking about the reforged X-blade. The Ultimate Weapon and the key to the True Kingdom Hearts. Xehanort had bequeathed it to him after having spent years setting everything up to make it. It was right there that Sora realized he finally had a proper Keyblade bequeathing ceremony and it was done by his greatest enemy of all people. Placing his hand on his heart he felt a faint connection to the legendary key. Even sealed with Kingdom Hearts it still called out to its master beyond what metaphysical barriers existed between them. Ready to be used by him. "I think your right."

Riku looked at Sora as all manner of questions popped into his head. "Do you think you can call it to you?"

Sora looked at his hand as for a brief moment he imagined it's handle within it. With it, he could probably get them home without any issue at all. "I sealed it along with Kingdom Hearts if I do risk reopening Kingdom Hearts."

Up within the heart of the central tower, she and Namine looked over the remodeled central computer. The Organizations central database had surprisingly not been emptied although such a thing could have been put on the fact that the Seekers of Darkness never had the need to do so. As such, they had what was basically all the research that Xemnas, Xehanort and the former members had made right in front of them. Right not they were using it for another purpose. "There the Gummiphones should be able to work."

Aqua took hers out and saw that everything looked to be in order. Having the means to communicate with each other would be a huge help for each of them. "I'm not getting contacts from Radiant Garden."

"I'm sorry I don't know what else to do," She was still rather new to computers. Actually, she might be the only one besides Mickey and Lea who could work this thing.

A sigh escaped Aqua's mouth. "I should have expected as much," Opening the Lanes Between had been a bust as well. This just meant they were going to need to find some way to create a Gummiship. Maybe she just needed some fresh air to think of a plan. "Do you mind if I could have a few Corridor of Darkness cards so I can go for a walk?"

* * *

To think that all this time she had fallen into Lord Ainz plan. Her mana was gone and now here she was struggling against him as he used the weapons of his fellow Supreme Beings. Shalltear still didn't know why she wanted to kill him but right now she didn't care as she thrashed about with her weapon.  _'How can I ever hope to win!'_

In her desperation, she unknowingly broke through the sealing chains of YGGDRASIL. As soon as the formerly digital seals broke her heart pulsed as the Darkness long caged finally had somewhere to go. "This…" Ainz noticed that something felt off about this situation. A dark aura started to surround Shalltear who immediately felt the power. "This is amazing!"

A surge of Darkness pulse out of her being catching Ainz by surprise. He had made sure that Shalltear MP had been drained completely. "What's going on Shalltear!"

Shalltear let out a yell as the damage to her body was in a rapid rate healed by whatever power that this was. She clenched her newly rebound arm. The Darkness gathered within it as a tint of gold entered into her eyes. "To be honest I haven't got a clue what this is," A smirk formed on her face as she could tell that this was something even he, one the Supreme Beings didn't know. "I'm not about to ask questions."

 _'Ok, new plan,'_  Ainz blocked a thrust from her lance.  _'This can't last for long I got to…'_  Another lance made from condensed Darkness slammed into his chest knocking him out of his thoughts.  _'She shouldn't have any MP left!'_

Unless whatever had happened not only healed her but replenished her MP. Judging by the fact he was now having to guard against two attacks at the same time now, one of which was made from what he assumed was whatever this energy was, it was probably safe to assume that might be the case. Knocking away the next two strikes he began to consider his options.

While he tried to figure out a way to salvage his plan or make a much needed change, Shalltear was wanting more of whatever this power was. Like a drug Darkness could become addictive especially to young hearts or those unable to grasp the full problems of the power. Her heart burned with the Darkness causing what Light within it to scream out but was silence.

 _"Give into the Darkness,"_ Something of a voice echoed faintly within the back of Shalltear's mind. Shalltear should be wondering where this voice was coming from but she was submerged into the shadows to care.  _"Let its power surge through your very being!"_

Darkness continued to leak out of Shalltear's form gathering around her body. Ainz had made note that whatever this ability was it was seemingly getting stronger with each passing second. Shalltear was letting this newfound energy get to her head. It was something Ainz hadn't seen. Something he hadn't planned for. Without caring or knowing of the consequences she gave further into the power.

Her eyes widened as in that moment Darkness surged from her body unchecked. Unknown to her she had just hit the tipping point and now her Heart belonged to the Darkness. It was at this moment that her sanity had returned but sadly for her, it was too late. "W-what hap-happening!"

Everything went dark as she felt her sense of self start to fall. Unknown to her the effects of the Darkness was too much for her heart. A laugh echoed through the void of Darkness that her identity found itself in. "Your heart belongs to the Darkness," A claws hand appeared in her vision and touched the eyelids of her self identity. "Sleep within your heart."

One final blast of Darkness came from her body. Ainz covered his eyes as the energy past by him. When it was over a ball of dark mist hung within the air before it broke apart like a cocoon. Two dark jagged feathered wings flapped as two arms with elongated red claws banged over from what looked like a mockery of Shalltear armor chest plate. Said armor broke apart near the legs into some kind of jagged mess just below the waist. Its head was that of Shalltear true form but with red glowing hair and gold lifeless eyes staring down at him.

The newly born Twisted Valkyrie, Shalltear's Heartless, let out a primal hiss as it looked at the being it once served. Ainz and the rest of the onlookers of Nazarick looked at the creature with complete and total shock.  _'WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!'_

Immediately Ainz passive activated to calm his emotions. Even with it he still couldn't believe what he was seeing. Shalltear had turned into one of the black creatures. Twisted Valkyrie felt a presence call to it nearby. The newly born Heartless instinctive recognized the nearby leader of its kind. Turning down as Ainz it knew what they wanted. Darkness gathered around it as it hissed at the Overlord. Two balls of Darkness gathered in its claws as the Heartless slammed them into the ground. A wave of dark mist covered the area and almost blinded Ainz's sight.

He raised his weapon to defend against a counter-attack but instead of a slash with its claws, Twisted Valkyrie lunged forward and grabbed him. Ainz was brought up to its face and looked straight into its dead yellow eyes. At that moment he knew that this was no longer anything there. "Shalltear what have you become?"

It took off into the air and then throw him into the ground kicking up dust. Ainz cursed under this breath at this. Whatever had happened to her hadn't decreased her power. He almost wondered if she was even stronger now. Two dark javelins formed floating above its claws.

The two were tossed aimed straight for Ainz heart. Ainz quickly summoned the shield he was using from before when a wisp of energy shot out and exploded in front of him. Instead of hitting the shield the two dark javelins hit a semi-translucent honeycomb barrier. Twisted Valkyrie's eyes turned red as it looked at the interloper.

Stormfall was brought back to her side as Aqua stares down the Heartless in front of her. She had just wanted to go for a walk. Her eyes narrowed as the Heartless hissed at her. Darkness surged from it as it tried to intimate the Sapphire Sorceress. After having spent over a decade with the Realm of Darkness nothing about it intimated Aqua one bit. "Alright then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll be honest when I was planning this story out I had always wondered on who to pick for the leader of the Guardians of Light. Aqua was my personal choice because as Lea stated it was either between her or Mickey on who would make a logical choice (Before anyone asks Sora feels a bit to trusting to take on the role). Anyway, you can all guess What's going to happen next chapter but what would be the aftermath of it? I'll leave that to your thoughts.


	7. Chapter 6

The plan was rather simple really. Shalltear would use up her MP and her resurrection item. After that, he only had to inflict enough damage to her for one last attack and end the fight. Instead, that plan was more or less completely ruined the moment the dark energy came from her. Watching Shalltear become one of those creatures from before completely caught him off guard. Now, someone completely different at interfered and honestly he wasn't complaining about the assist.

Speaking of which he almost wondered about the strange magic that had been used as well as the weird weapon in her hands. Twisted Valkyrie, however, instinctively knew what the weapon was. All Heartless had it burned into what passed for minds. It was that very weapon that gave rise to the first of its kind and broke the balance of Light and Darkness. It wasted no time and flew at the Keyblade Master.

Aqua immediately jumped out of the way of its claws. Her reflexes being almost an unconscious decision after many years of attempted ambushes by the Heartless. Using Double Flight she passed over the Heartless and aimed Stormfall at its wings. "Thunder!"

A Thundaga Shot was sent right into its back and on contact, the ball of electric exploded out causing the Heartless to hiss in pain before falling to the ground as its wings were suddenly hit with a stun effect. Aqua turned to Ainz as he got up. "You need any help?"

Ainz looked at the newcomer for a moment before answering. His Detect Undead skill told him that she was one and by looks of it was possible that she was a vampire. For a second he wandered back to the Guardians of Light. Was this the Sapphire Socresses Aqua? Right now was not the time for questions. Twisted Valkyrie wings returned to normal as the stun effect ceased and turned to the both of them as Darkness burned off its form. "It would be appreciated."

In each of the Heartless claws two lances, each one looking like a mockery of Spuit Lance, the very weapon that Shalltear wielded. The presence it felt gave it a new order. Kill both her former master and the young woman. Overhead clouds of Darkness swirled around as it went to attack them both. Ainz pulled up his shield while Aqua held her hand out her barrier forming around her. Ainz deflected the strike while Aqua responded with a retaliation shattering her barrier and sending it at the Heartless knocking it back momentarily.

Aqua jumped back and pointed her Keyblade as a Blizzaga was sent right at the Heartless. "Freeze!" The ball of ice exploded but the damage of the attack was hampered. The ice resistance that Shalltear had passed on to her Heartless. Instinctively she sang her Keyblade as three Firaga spells were sent. On contact, the effect was much more devastating than usual.  _'Resists ice and is weak to fire.'_

Her temporary ally was also taking notes. Not of the Heartless but of her and the strange magic she had used. While the spells looked like low their magic the damage he got from the Life Essence skill that was still targeting the Heartless gave another story. It was difficult to get a proper read on the creator and the damaging effect but from both attacks, it almost seemed that they were stronger then they let on.  _'Those were almost equivalent to either 6th, 7th, or perhaps 8th tier magic.'_

If only they were not in the middle of a fight. Questions were arising to him and right now was not the place for it. A burst of Darkness surged from the Heartless knocking both its opponents back. Aqua unsummoned her Keyblade and was able to backflipped into an upright position while Ainz used the weight of the armor he had to skid to a stop. Aqua stared at the Heartless as she spoke with a very casual tone for all things considered. "This might take a while."

* * *

Meanwhile, the ensuing fight between the two and the Heartless was being watched by the Floor Guardians of Nazarick. The development of Shalltear turning into one of the black creatures had raised several questions in their minds but all that had been mostly forgotten as they watched their Lord fight with the interloper against what was formerly Shalltear.

On the mirror, Twisted Valkyrie launched several balls of what appeared to be glowing red energy at both of its opponents. Ainz blocked it while Aqua moved out of the direction of the first few before swinging her weapon at the last one cutting through the attack. This was the opening the Heartless wanted as it slammed it's lance into her midsection before a blast of dark energy blasted from it and sent her flying. Instead of landing on the ground with a this she flipped in midair and tossed out three fireballs in retaliation.

"Just who is that woman?" Albedo spoke what they had all been thinking as they watched the events unfold.

Demiurge had a theory about who it might be. It wasn't a few days ago that their lord had encountered Sora and looking at how well the woman was holding herself perhaps she was one of the Guardians of Light. He wasn't one hundred percent sure if this was the case though. After all, this could just be a native of the world.

On the mirror, Ainz was knocked down having been caught off guard when a dark energy ball exploded from the tip of the lance of the Heartless. Instead of Twisted Valkyrie following up Aqua suddenly jumped up and started impacting into the Heartless each time jumping back up and into the air before reappearing and impacting into it again thanks to Magic Hour.

On the last moment, she tried to slam into it Twisted Valkyrie knocked Aqua off of it. She righted herself within the air and raised her weapon. Nothing seemed to happen before she jumped in slashing at the Heartless. "Whoever she is she's fighting with Ainz against whatever has happened to Shalltear," Cocytus didn't know if he should thank them or not. Their Lord had wanted to face Shalltear on his own after all. "And at around their level as well."

Twisted Valkyrie was soon beset by both magical arrows from Ainz and a multicolored energy barrage from Aqua. Enraged it sent a pulse of Darkness to knock the both of them back. Raising both lances above its head it sent two spares of Darkness into the sky. From above them quick streams of the stuff rained down at them both of them forcing them to evade or block. Ainz and Aqua managed to get away from the attack and continued on with the fight.

* * *

Aqua cartwheels out of the way of the sweeping lances as the Heartless once again let out a barrage of energy lances in all directions. She brought up her barrier before they could hit her. This was starting to become an annoying pattern. The Heartless let out attacks aimed at sweeping the area to prevent either of them from getting close to it.  _'This is taking to long.'_

Ainz was of similar thoughts as her. Given how much damage they had managed to finally inflict he was safe to assume that his original plan to end this could finally work. He just had to get close to this thing and it was done. "Listen if you can clear a-" He was interrupted by a deep almost primal roar-like coming from Twisted Valkyrie. Darkness surged around it as it raised its claws. Runes formed in the area above it. "What is it doing?!"

"It's a desperation attack!" A common trend among the stronger breeds of Heartless was to save one last trump card in order to win a fight. Before they realize it the runes collapsed as a wave of energy surged out from its body at high speed.

Ainz was rather thankful he had prepared himself for this as soon as the attack slammed into him. Using the shield on instinct he managed to block away much the attack but from the pain and damage alone it was rather clear that this attack was holy by nature. As soon as it came it was done. Aqua, however, was actually hit by the attack thanks to being closer of the two. She wasn't a stranger to the pain and effects of Darkness infused attacks. In fact, she had a rather high natural resistance to them, a byproduct of her long-time spent within the Realm of Darkness, this, however, was a lot different as it felt almost like something was trying to burn her to ash.

She landed on the ground with a thud catching the momentary attention of Ainz. At that Twisted Valkyrie shot for him and just before it could grab him something exploded from under it. The mines that Aqua had set up were finally triggered by its presence.  _'A trap spell?'_

At least it got him some time. Twisted Valkyrie moved back and summoned balls of dark energy which circled around it and then appeared around Ainz. As soon as they did, they moved in and exploded as soon as they made contact. Twisted Valkyrie moved back ready to unleash another attack. It stopped turned around as was greeted with Aqua pointing her glowing Keyblade right at it. She had enough of this fight. "Megaflare!"

From the tip of her Keyblade, a blinding flash engulfed the whole battlefield. The painful hisses of Twisted Valkyrie were heard echoing through the battlefield before they got fainter and then silence. When the flash cleared traces of flames burned all around as the only remains of the Heartless was the evaporating wisps of Darkness which quickly disappeared.

It was over whatever had become of Shalltear was destroyed. Ainz looked at the blasted landscape. The ground looked blasted apart and even somewhat burned black as if flashed cooked. Even his armor was hot as if the very air itself was burned. "It's finally gone," She turned over to Ainz wondering if he would need healing or not. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine, all things considered," Now that whatever had happened to Shalltear had been felt with Ainz had a lot of questions. Figuring out what had happened to her that caused the sudden transformation into a black creature was first on his list but right now he had another. Mainly about the young woman in front of him. "Thank you for the assistance if you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

"My name is Aqua," She looked at the living skeleton as the threat of the Heartless was now gone. It wasn't like undead weren't something uncommon to see in the worlds. No, what she was thinking about pertained to his armor and the weapons he used. "You're not used to fighting with weapons are you?"

Having been trained since a young age in how to use a weapon she could pick up on how well one was with them. Despite not having her eyes on him she did pick up on the hints of him having a degree of difficulty with his weapons. In a way she was correct as while [Perfect Warrior] did convert hid stays to that of a warrior it wasn't anything overly special and unlike in the game, he was more or less attempting to mimic how he saw others attack in the game.  _'Wait a minute her name is Aqua?'_

That just raised a host of questions. Her magic wasn't like that of YGGDRASIL. Not once did she seem to use a spell he could recognize. A possibility of them not being from YGGDRASIL entered his mind but then he recalled that Sora knew what it was. Perhaps, it could have been one of the spin-off games that came about.

"Why is everything so lifeless?" This should at best be a clearing in the middle of the forest. She was somewhat grateful for this as using Megaflare would have set the whole area into a quickly expanding inferno. "Did the Heartless have something to do with it?"

"Heartless?" Other then the term, which didn't seem to fit her saying as Aqua had no idea who Shalltear was, Ainz didn't understand what she was getting at. Unless she was talking about just what Shalltear had become. "What are you talking about?"

Aqua was about to answer seeing no harm in it when the sound of her ringtone caught there attention. Of all the times for it to go off. "Excuse me for a moment," Reaching into her pockets she pulled out, much to Ainz complete shock and surprise, her Gummiphone and looked at who was calling her. Turning around she brought the phone up close to her. "Namine this isn't a good time."

It was a phone. Aqua had a working smartphone. There weren't any phones in YGGDRASIL, unless it was in one of the spin-off games, so just who was she? "Sorry, but it's important can you return?

"Alright I'll be there soon," She ended the call and put away her phone. When she turned back to him she had a feeling that Ainz was staring at her. "Is something wrong?"

"You have a smartphone."

"Wait you know what phone is?!"

* * *

Aqua walked out the Corridor of Darkness with her armor disappearing in a flash as soon as she did. A sigh escaped her mouth as she thought about what had just happened. Namine was there with both Mickey and Riku. Her thoughts about the skeleton warrior from before were pushed away as she walked up to the three of them. "Alright Namine what is that you wanted to show me."

Tapping on her desk a faint hologram of what looked like the world itself appeared. It was more of a guesswork as the computer data of the surroundings was somewhat limited beyond the continent they were on. "The Castles computers have been detecting the appearances of the Heartless in massive concentrations," Much of the continent was soon covered in dots each one registering a Heartless incursion only for the whole place to become covered. "Unfortunately the system was originally designed to pick up on the possibilities for worlds and it can't accurately pick up on where they are until I recalibrate its settings."

"Some of the others are currently taking a look at the places around us and already they warned us about a few Heartless but none within five miles of this place," That wasn't surprising to hear given the defenses of their floating fortress. Which everyone in the room knew they had to see if they could move it to a more secluded area. A giant flying fortress was a dead give away that something was up.

As Keyblade wielders, it was their duty to take out the Heartless. This would help them with that should their end up being a horde of them. Aqua thought back to the Heartless from before. "Also, the system has files on each of us," Riku, Mickey, and Namine looked at one another having read them. "You might want to see what they say."

A few minutes later Aqua was looking at each of the records. Currently, she was reading over the file for herself. It had her rank within the Guardians as both a Keyblade Master and the newly elected leader. Her age both biological age of nineteen and chronological age, as much as it could be measured given the Realm of Darkness relationship with time. The last part caught her attention. Her species was listed which caught her by surprise. "Heteromorphic race, True Vampire?"

She read what was listed about it and was rather surprised at what she was reading about it. Especially given it had a detailed description that matched what she had originally awoken as. Aqua was really grateful for her knowledge of magic given this. "Has anyone else seen this besides us?"

They shook their heads. Aqua figured that this was the case. "Well, at least I know what I've become," A bloodsucking undead monster basically. Speaking of undead there was her promise to explain what happened to the skeleton man. Aqua turned her head over to Namine. "Do any of you know where Carne Village is?"

* * *

Sephiroth turned as he watched a figure cover in a black cloak walkout. A light blue mask with yellow reptile-like slits on each side of the mask was what greeted him from the hood. An arm moved out from under the cloak covered completely with a fabric that was reminiscent of that of the Organization's coat mixed with leather strappings and claw-like gauntlets. The figure elected the fingers a few times as Sephiroth watched. "I take it there's no problems with your new vessel."

"Mostly," The effect of its possession had caused some changes. Already its hair was starting to alter from the blond coloration into a shade of black, it's presence was almost causing the eyes to mirror the usual color of a Heartless. Never mind that it couldn't withstand the force of its power until it got used to. "This voice could take some getting used too," Said voice was altered being more of a sweet and kind tone to it but overall it stayed similar enough to its original voice. "Beyond that, it should do for now."

The Darkling had wanted to get itself a new vessel for added security. Should the Keyblade be used on it the Heartless could abandon the body instead of being destroyed by the weapon. A safety precaution and a necessary one at that. With the new form, she could always wander around the world and look for rumors that could lead it to the keyhole. As soon as it and they Heartless devoured the heart of the world the rest of the world would be open to them.

As for Sephiroth, he would ride the remnant of the world through the tides of the Realm of Darkness into the Realm of Light. From there he will face Cloud once again. "Has the Vampires Heartless succeeded or failed?"

"It's been destroyed," It felt the moment that the Heartless ceased to be. An understandable outcome given the nature of the fight. Even with the boost that was given by the Heartless leader, it seemed it wasn't enough. "One of the Keyblades Chosen interfered and destroyed her."

If it's was any other opponent had destroyed it then the Darkling could bring it back. The Keyblade was such a curious weapon whose nature made it the ideal weapon against them. At least one thing was clear. Its heart was too weak. At best it would just be revived after its Heartless was destroyed. Alternatively, it could be so weak that it would pass on to Kingdom Hearts. Assuming it wasn't pulled down into its shadow, of course.

"A shame," It wasn't like he cared about it. Sephiroth assumed he wasn't the only one given the general disinterest of his ally. Speaking of which there was something he had forgotten to ask. "What is your name by the way?"

A laugh came from the Darkling. It is funny when it thought about it. "I am only half of what I used to be you know that's like asking what your leg is called," Still, seeing how it was a part of the being it once was by right the was name was still it's own. "Although if you want to know the person who I once belonged to was called,"

She turned her head over to him as she smiled under her mask. Memories of long ago played in her mind. Even as a being of Darkness she couldn't forget the feelings of back then. "Skuld."

* * *

Ainz returned to the Nazarick with his mind racing about the events that had transpired. No doubt the Floor Guardians had seen what had happened with the fight. They most definitely wanted answers and so did he.  _'Aqua called what Shalltear had turned into a Heartless,'_  A rather fitting name for when he had looked into her empty eyes he saw nothing of Shalltear within them.  _'There is no way that was in the game and something tells me that they aren't a Guild.'_

He wanted answers and at least Aqua had offered to give him some. At the very least he would be given answers about what he can only assume is another foreign element that was in the world. At the same time as both him and the Guardians of Light, at least he assumed it was the case, appeared in the world. "There is a lot more that we'll have to prepare for."

First things first he had to see about resurrecting Shalltear. As well as inform the Floor Guardians about just who the woman was and about his meeting with her. He was a bit hesitant at the idea that this may be a trap. Although he didn't think it was the case it was better to be safe after all. "No doubt she would come with backup of her own."

A few hours later Ainz watched as the necessary gold was brought before him. Once he had brought back Shalltear he could explain everything between both him and Aqua to the Tomb. He looked at the pile in front of him it was finally time to bring her back. Perhaps, Shalltear could tell him what had happened to her and who had done it.

The gold melted as the cost for reviving one of the NPC of Nazarick seemed to be the same as in YGGDRASIL. There was a problem not soon as he had started as something was seemingly blocking him as he attempted to resurrect Shalltear. It was like something was pulling on her and refused to let go. He fought with whatever it was trying to break this pull burning through his MP as he struggled. Finally, he managed to break whatever was holding on to her. With that out of the way, it wasn't hard for the resurrection to go on without an issue.

The newly revived Vampire opened her eyes as Ainz helped her up giving her a blanket to help cover herself. He made a note about how hard it was to resurrect Shalltear even ignoring the rest of them as they admonished Shalltear on failing her mission.  _'I'm almost completely out of MP,'_ This was never much of an issue but now it seems that if too many of them died he wouldn't be able to bring them back.  _'We're being careless.'_

So far they seem to have been tricked into thinking that nothing threatens them. For all, he knew there was someone or something out there that could threaten them. "Shalltear, can you remember anything that had happened to you took the mission?"

Shalltear stopped for a moment as an image flashed through her mind. Dark claws over her head and yellow eyes looking into her. Fear ripped through her heart before it was suppressed. No soon as this had happened did it disappear from her mind. "No, I don't remember anything."

The effects of the World Item and being brought back could be to blame for that. However, this did mean that they had no idea who did it. While he wasn't so sure that Aqua or the Guardians did it, the possibility still existed on that end, the possibility of another player, or even whatever was leading these 'Heartless'. "Everyone I have something to tell you all about."

* * *

A faint light poured from the trees as she pulled herself up on instinct. There was no memory of how she had gotten here and at the same time, she felt nothing. Unlike most people who would have a crisis of existence, she didn't feel anything about it. Still, it was only logical to ask the question. "Who am I?"

All she got was a bunch of broken words and phrases in her head. Floor Guardian, Ainz, Nazarick, and True Vampire. The last of these was referring to her that much she could understand but nothing else. No name, no idea what that or any of the phrases meant. She had basically nothing.

Without anything to feel or care she walked aimlessly in front of her. No destination was in her mind. Eventually, she came to a stop as a black creature appeared in front of her. A Soldier stared at her as she did at it. The Heartless didn't sense anything from the shell in front of it. There was no heart, not even a fledgling one, and as such no reason to fight the Nobody.

The Heartless turned its attention to the side as it felt a presence nearby. Before it knew it a blast of fire slammed into it. It landed with a thud into a tree and broke apart into dark mists. "Are you alright?"

She turned her head over to the source of the voice. There was some sense of familiarity as she looked at the person who had attacked the Heartless. Kairi could feel that something was wrong, looking at the person in front of her. An emotionless voice greeted her from the person. "Albedo?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now here a thing. Going forward I am still thinking of what kind of relationship Nazarick and the Guardians of Light would have concerning each other. Given that their interests, if you think about it really, don't conflict with each other so hostility makes really no sense. Actually, neither does an outright alliance as the one thing they both would share as an enemy, you know the Heartless, is something that they would deal with regardless. Their Keyblade wielders dealing with Heartless and ideally maintaining the balance of the realms is their job. Plus we know that subverting them from the inside is pretty much pointless and betrayal impossible as well.
> 
> Oh, right what happened at the end of the chapter. Okay so Ainz was able to do what Kairi did (although not the same) and disrupted the usual process of a nobodies formation. Ironically if he didn't Shalltear's body would have degenerated into a lesser nobody strain. So, yeah he can resurrect people who lost their hearts to the Heartless or their own Darkness but it actually requires him to fight the connection to do so and that requires him to pay up his MP as cost and should he run out...


	8. Chapter 7

Terra, Lea, Roxas, and Xion all made it back after scouting the area around Cor Cathedrali Basilica. There were no villages but there were signs that people had been around her once before. Even a road to the east. There was one of them missing, however. "Where is Kairi?"

"She should be back by now," She really should as each of them had been given two Corridor of Darkness cards. One to get where she needed to go another to come back. Sure walking through the pathways was a bit nauseating for her being a Princess of Heart but she had enough control that it shouldn't be a problem. Lea hoped nothing bad had happened to her to prevent her from returning.

Before any of them could go out and look for her, Kairi walked in. "Sorry I was late I had to take the long way."

"Did you lose that card Namine gave you?" Kairi shook her head. She walked back to the hallway and then pulled the reason why to them. Following behind her almost robotically the Nobody just looked at the twelve others without any response. Aqua could feel something wrong about them was quick to realize what it was. "She's a Nobody."

A few minutes later Kairi had filled in the others everything while the girl just stood there without any reaction. Which wasn't surprising when Kairi revealed that she couldn't remember anything. To Lea it sounded exactly like how Roxas had been. For many, a question arose about how this could be possible. "This doesn't make any sense if she's a Nobody then she should still have her memories."

There was an exception in this regard but Roxas had been an extremely unique case. Due to Kairi interference, he was without any memories of Sora and ended up developing independently from him. Mickey began to think about it being the case but just how that could be. "We know so little about the world, perhaps someone tried a resurrection spell?"

Both Riku and Aqua gave this a bit of thought. Riku knew that with the power of Darkness one could resurrect themselves and others. Maleficent was a prime example of it and Riku did take a look at the spell when he was fighting the organization from the shadows. However, his understanding of it required that the person not become a Heartless themselves.  _'Wait,'_  He suddenly realized that he might actually be able to do. ' _Can I actually use the Darkness that way?'_

"A resurrection spell theoretically could work," Aqua knew there was a lot of other issues with this. The only way that seemed to be possible was if someone was able to separate the connection that a defeated Heartless would have to their body. Aqua shook her head. "We'll figure this out later," It was time to get back on track. "Everyone I have an announcement to make."

* * *

Sora walked down the halls as he thought about what Aqua had informed them all. First was that the computers had information on what they had all become. Save both him and Riku who remained the same. A blush formed as he recalled what Kairi had become.

After that Aqua had explained her meeting with someone near Carne Village. Sora who had a map and knew where it was had given her the picture and told her just where she needed to go.  _'I wonder how they are doing?'_

Maybe he could visit the village and see how they are holding up. As he continued his walks through the halls he came to a stop within a room that had several weapons, many of them looking just like weapons that the Organization would use. "This must have once been the Armoury."

Another room nearby seemed to be a forge were the Organization would make the weapons. A computer terminal nearby which Sora had little idea his to operate. His islands were a bit more advanced than most of the world's he visited but no were near Radiant Garden or Disney Castle. Even so, he figured it wouldn't hurt to give it a shot. The screen came to life as he looked at the options on screen.

"Synthesize, material list, storage…" Tapping on one of keys he brought up the Synthesis list. A lot of the list looked just like the one he had back at the Moogle Shops.

Sora stopped and reached into his bottomless pockets and pulled some of his gear and accessories. He had plenty of them with him along with far more potions and ethers then he realistically could ever need. "I think I'm becoming a hoarder?"

"Why would you think that?" Sora turned around to see Terra standing behind him. He saw the verify of objects that Sora had out and placed on the nearby table to the computer. Terra picked up the Cosmic Belt+ and then the Petite Ribbon. "You know if you want I can see about making you a set of Keyblade Armor."

Vaguely Sora knew about what Keyblade Armor was thanks to an echo of when Ventus was within his heart. With that, he thought about him wearing his own and after a few moments, Sora decided against it. Wearing armor really didn't suit him and besides his clothes were enchanted for him to help with his abilities and needs in mind. "Nah I'm good."

"Well, if you ever change your mind let me know," Terra put Sora's items down and moved to head out. He stopped and turned to the numerous weapons that hung on the walls. Most of them in part made by his hands back when said hands were under the control of the will of Xehanort.

Sora pocketed his items and figured he might as well looked into his pockets for the materials he had collected from the last journey that are still on him. They were the one thing that he didn't really bother to check up on as usually he just gave them to the Moogles and that was it. Seeing how they were nowhere to be found, which was surprising given they somehow set up shop in the Realm of Sleep, it looked like he was going to need to keep a general idea of what he had.

Some Energy Crystals, a few Mythril Gems, two Hungry Crystals, two Adamantite, one Orichalcum, and even an Electrum. He had wondered why his enemies tend to drip these materials and strangely enough he remembered Cid telling him he didn't really know himself. Sora guessed it must have been something they found that the Heartless just took because it looked pretty or something.

* * *

"So, the Keyblade wielders have their own base?"

"Yes, and whatever barrier they are using prevents me from sending myself or any Heartless near it."

A Corridor of Darkness opened up as both of its travelers walked out into an alleyway. Skuld turned over to Sephiroth. While he looked more or less human there was the issue of his wing. "You might want to change your appearance to blend in."

Sephiroth held up his hand as an illusion was cast over his appearance. Gone was his wings and his long hair returned to a shorter cut. Even his outfit appeared changed. Personally, he hadn't used this spell much before. "Will this do?"

The outfit might raise eyebrows given that this society was still medieval but on a whole perhaps they could get by with being foreign. After all, it wasn't likely that they had a full map of the world. As the two of them walked through the city it was clear that parts of it were looking a bit under-maintained. Skuld could smell several Darkness filled hearts within the city.  _'I guess that the nobles are corrupt.'_

Skuld stopped as she noticed a robbery happening in broad daylight. Several armed men just up and took something from a well off looking person. Neither of the two beings of Darkness really cared about the thief but seeing how there was a possibility of getting some information Skuld raised her hand. Immediately they sound gravity leave them as a Zero Gravira was cast. Then the force was inverted as gravity suddenly became several times what they were used too. As they struggled under the force that was crushing them Skuld just walked up and took the item that they had stolen unconcerned about the force she had put their bodies under. The spell ceased but none of them got up as the pain from their breaking bones was just too much to handle.

"Here I believe this is yours," Skuld handed the man his stolen goods.

The man looked between her and the unconscious, or dead as he didn't know what had happened to them. It seemed to be magic, not any he had seen before. "Did you do that?"

"I did," Skuld knew that they were still alive. Assuming they could get medical attention in time that is. Although given they were criminals and the state of things they might just be left to suffer. "It's magic from my homeland both me and my companion found our way here a bit by accident," This story just sounded terrible but then again it was made on the fly. "You wouldn't happen to know where we can get a map?"

Half an hour later the two beings of Darkness walked through the streets of the city. According to the man, there was a place that they could get a map but it was on the other side of the city. Beyond that, he had made a comment on something about her outfit reminding him of an adventurer. That was something to check out later. Who knows maybe that would lead to something that she could use.

As they walked through the back alleyways the city in order to get to their destination quicker. As they did a bunch of thugs decided to make themselves known. "Well, what do we have here two travelers I take it?" They all pulled out and pointed their weapons at then both. "Alright, let's skip the part where you give us everything you have?"

Skuld and Sephiroth looked at the weapons without even saying anything. The threat to the both of them was just so outlandish and a bit sad really. They had no idea how screwed they just made themselves. "Look at them they are so scared that aren't able to move," The one closest to the group has a sadistic smile before swinging his blade at them. Immediately it got caught with Skuld's hands who didn't even react to it. "What the hell!"

He tried to pull his weapon out of the grip. Not a single inch moved no matter how hard he tried. "Tell me is this what passes for a sword?" Her other hand grabbed the would-be attacker by the neck and picked him up. Almost immediately his body was completely frozen and with that Skuld tossed the newly made dead body to the ground. "Pitiful."

She didn't have time to waste on these weaklings. From the ground, Neoshadows rose up and surrounded the rest of them. They stared at them before jumping on them.

* * *

Ainz stood in the field waiting for Aqua to show up dressed in his usual attire and equipment, with the exception of the Staff of Ainz Ooal Gown. To the outside oversee it appeared that he was alone but that was far from the case. Although no one was visibly with him he had made sure that if he needed support that he could get it. The Floor Guardians were on standby along with most of the Pleiades and several other Nazarick NPCs.

As he stood there alone and by himself, he started to realize that there might be one issue with this. Aqua probably had no idea where Carne Village even was. "I can't believe I forgot about that," Great now she was probably wondering around some other village. "Wait," He saw someone coming up the distance. "It's her."

Aqua walked up seemingly without anyone backing her up. Ainz wondered if she was thinking the same as him or if she had come alone. "I see you managed to find me."

"I was just lucky that Sora had a map and knew were the village even was," It was also where he found out the Heartless had come to this world. Aqua almost wondered how many people had been taken by them before they met up with each other. "It did still take me about half an hour to find you."

Well, that does explain who it was that helped the village before him. Ainz made a note of that in case it proved to be important later down the line. "My apologies I just figured it out myself," He couldn't believe he had overlooked that. Then again things had been rather hectic after Shalltear had turned into that thing.  _'Shalltear hasn't shown any negative effects from what had happened to her.'_

"No, its oI forgot to ask you about it," With this out of the way they had something to talk about. Mostly on what was going on. "So, what do you want to know?"

The resulting exchange between the both of them was rather enlightening for Ainz. Much like him and Nazarick, the Guardians of Light were from another world and from what Aqua told him they had no idea how they had ended up here. Although Aqua had kept quiet about a lot of facts that he didn't need to know, like that the Guardians could travel between worlds, or made stuff up when he asked. Just because he was somewhat aware of other worlds did not mean that she was liable to share the secrets of the universe.

Ainz took what she had said and was speechless. Unlike him who was once human, Aqua was, according to her own words, born a True Vampire. This of course likely meant that the rest were likely born their species as well. There was a lot of questions he had about her world and why it seemed like this but that could be asked for later. "Darkness in one's heart?"

This heart that Aqua had been talking about was far different than what he had first thought. It wasn't an organ but from the way she talked about it, the importance it held was unbelievable. Apparently, it held everything that made someone that someone. "A question but can someone exist without a heart?"

"It can but it doesn't last long as anything with a will of its own will develop one," It was a thing about living things. They naturally sought to develop a heart. "Even those that lost their heart would be able to use their memories to begin the process."

"Wait, are you saying that a being can say be given memories and then develop their heart?" Aqua gave him a nod as a very well terrifying thought crossed his mind.

If the heart was the thing that made someone that someone and memories could be given, then did mean that he wasn't who he thought he was. Suzuki Satoru was his own person and his avatar Momonga wasn't an independent thing. At least until now, that is.  _'Are all my memories fake?'_

He wondered why he was even having a crisis over this or believing her. For all, he knew she was making all this up. Yet, some part of him knew for some reason or another that this heart was real. "Are you ok?"

Rather than deal with the onsetting of an existential crisis of his identity Ainz decided to focus back on their talk, He can deal with this some other time. Hopefully,  _never_  would be preferable. Pulling himself together he looked as Aqua was giving him a worried expression. She was actually concerned about him and she didn't know anything about him!  _'She's either great at acting or she is honestly that nice…'_  Regardless of which he had been staring out for longer than he had expected. "Yes, I was just lost in thought."

" _Aqua I don't think his story he gave is all there is to him,"_ Namine's voice echoed with Aqua's mind. The blonde Succubus had been reaching through the many connections she could get from Sora's own to the X-Blade. Ainz's was an extremely far one in terms of connections.

Aqua was hesitant to have her spy in on the conversation but knew it was for the best. They were in an unknown world cut off from the rest of the worlds, and with no way to contact any of their allies or leave. Faced with this and the possibility of being manipulated there was enough of a reason to keep the connection going.  _'What do you think his intentions are?'_

Namine tried to search through the Overlords chain of memories. With enough time she could see his she life and even begin removing bits and the like. However, to do so she had to reach through numerous other connections.  _"There appears to be no malicious intent aimed at us but beyond that, I have no idea."_

At least he wasn't threatening to them, or at least not threatening to them for now. Something in her heart was telling her to be wary about trusting him fully. Still, it would be best to have a positive relationship with someone or another force if they are stuck in this world for a rather long time.  _'I wonder.'_

"About these Heartless how much of a threat are they on there own?" Getting back to what they were saying Ainz had to know how much of a danger these Heartless were. Right now he was going to have to keep a watchful eye on basically most of Nazarick for signs of falling to the Darkness.

"Individually most kinds of Heartless wouldn't be much of an issue for me and likely for you and the ones that are aren't common," She had seen how strong Heartless were both inside and outside the Realm of Darkness. Even in the later, she didn't have much to fear from a Shadow, unless they formed into a Demon Tower. "However, the issue is that unless they are destroyed with a Keyblade they would eventually reform and while normally mindless there is a kind of Heartless called a Darkling which serves as their natural leader."

There were other ways besides a Keyblade to truly destroy a Heartless but they were extremely situational. After all, there wasn't going to be an artificial Kingdom Hearts anytime soon to unleash a huge blast of light on them. Ainz had a lot more questions but looking into her eyes he could see something. A hint of a hunter talking about her prey. "Is there a Darkling leading them?"

This might just be the thing that took control of Shalltear. It was to him a rather strong possibility given that she had turned into one of them. Aqua gave him a nod confirming it. "We believe so," With an actual intelligence controlling them the Heartless were a far greater threat than just being mindless. "They were pulled into retreating something Heartless rarely do."

 _'Wait, didn't Shalltear say that she felt like something had entered…'_  If Ainz could his eyes would have gone wide at the realization. The Heartless could enter the Tomb and leave.  _' Of course, if they have a unique way of travel then it's very likely for them to infiltrate Nazarick.'_  The Heartless was starting to become a greater threat to him and Nazarick to the more they talked about it. "Wait, you said a Keyblade needs to destroy them what is that?"

Aqua held out her hand and summoned Stormfall. Ainz looked at the shape and was quick to notice that the thing was somewhat shaped like a key. "This is a Keyblade it serves the connection that the Realm of Darkness has over a Heartless returning the heart back to the state before it became a Heartless."

Ainz was curious about what it was made from and what kind of enchantment was used. Even though it was foreign to basically both this world and his game he did wonder if it was possible to replicate it. "Could I see it?"

His request did cause her to have some suspicion but it seemed harmless. Aqua looked at Stormfall as if wanting to hear its response. Which given how Keyblades had a degree of sentience to them that wasn't far from the case. After a few moments, she handed him the Keyblade which he took holding it on what seemed to be the blade part.

There weren't any signs of damage to it one bit but that could be chalked up to any number of reasons. There wasn't a defined edge either and seemed to be more like a staff then a sword. Given that she had mostly been using magic during the fight he was certain it was that way because she was likely a spellcaster. "All Appraisal Magic Item," He whispered the spell under his breath to get a better idea of its make up. As soon as the spell was cast it failed.  _'What the hell?'_

Unknown to him the spell failed for two reasons. For one the Keyblade was partly metaphysical making its reading difficult to concern. The other was that it was technically alive both with a will of its own and as an extension of Aqua. Without any idea about any of this he figured it was due to something about it being too otherworldly for his magic. His hands then moved to grip the handle and in a flash, the Keyblade returned to Aqua's hands.

"Sorry, it does that when anyone but me tries to use it," That or Kairi who has chosen by Stormfall to wield a Keyblade and any others. Aqua wasn't going to tell him everything about the Keyblade after all. "It's actually apart of me in a…" There something she never thought she had to do. "How should I describe it?"

If it was apart of her and not just some magical weapon then it would make sense for his spell to have failed. Although that did open up a whole bunch of questions on how a Keyblade was even made. Suddenly he had an image of some kind of desiring removing of a part of this so-called heart and stopped his train of thought.  _'I don't think I would want to know.'_

Ainz thought about all he was told and about what to do now with it. If Aqua was any indication on the power of the other Guardians of Light fighting them was probably not ideal for several reasons. Then there was the Heartless who were a far bigger threat in the long run. Especially if their leader had a World Item with them. "If I may I have a proposal to run by you."

* * *

Skuld looked at the map that she was able to procure from one of the shops. This was far better than simply having the Heartless randomly appear all over the place. Already she had mentally marked points of interest that were not on the map but that she could guess. To the east of the Great Forest was the Tomb that had appeared and where she believed Twisted Valkyrie's somebody had come from.

To the northeast of the mountains, the Keyblade Wielders had likely made their base. Although even then she wasn't so sure as the map did have some usual inaccuracies that all maps made by hand likely had. Pocketing the map away she saw Sephiroth walking up to her. "Have you learned anything of note?"

"A few people of note who are supposed to be the strongest that this Kingdom has to offer," Although given how strong the people usually are Sephiroth didn't think about it too much. What he did find was that according to a few traders the nation to the south was far stronger than any of the other human nations. "A few are talking about sightings of what sounds like Nobodies popping up and missing adventurers."

Oh, she knew about those missing adventurers. Her Heartless had been attacked by them and it quickly ended up being a mistake on their part. One of them had enough Darkness within them to give rise to a Novashadow. "Yes, the poor fools that got into a fight with my Heartless."

The both of them walked into an alleyway as a Corridor of Darkness formed. Before they could walk through Skuld stopped as she smelled a strong Darkness. Her eyes turned over to the direction of Ro Lente Castle.  _'Such a strong Darkness.'_

* * *

The Platinum Dragon Lord was troubled by the recent events. Not long ago he felt another wave of Darkness. The vile presence it seems had grown stronger or something along those lines had entered the world. He didn't know which one was worse. Then there was that other wave of energy that had made itself known. Whatever it was the vile blight was pushed away by it.  _'Wait shouldn't another wave of players from YGGDRASIL be wondering the world?'_

He had almost completely forgotten about them! A curse echoed through his mind. He had been so focused on the creatures of Darkness, on the Heartless, that he had forgotten about the other problem. For a moment he wondered if that energy wave from before was them but immediately tossed that thought aside. This hadn't happened in any of the other times before. Unless this was something else unrelated.  _'Great just my luck.'_

His head shot up as he felt a small pulse of Darkness within his current residence. Unlike with the Heartless, this didn't feel vile. It actually felt somewhat comforting. Then he saw a strange creature hope into the room. It was plump with its rouge hanging out and seemed to have a passing glance to a feline. "What are you?"

The Meow Wow didn't answer as all it did was roll over on its back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How long before a Nightmare pops up? I already know the answer so I don't know why I try to ask that. Anyway, I am excited for Re:Mind coming up this winter. I might need to do some wielding on what happens in it with this story or not we'll see.


	9. Chapter 8

The mood within the throne room was somewhat tensed as the Floor Guardians waited to see what the outcome of Ainz talks with Aqua. They were not called out to help him but the wait was starting to get rather long for a few of them. The doors opened as Ainz walked back in having teleported just outside the room. They immediately bowed as he made his way to the throne with Albedo addressing him. "Lord Ainz you have returned I trust everything went well with your talk with Aqua?"

"Indeed and I have a lot to share with you," Ainz gaze turned to each of them as Aqua explanations of a Heartless sat with him. At least he didn't have to worry as much as he was hoped for long. "First we have a name for the black creatures that have been showing up in the world," He turned to Shalltear who he knew was still beating herself up about her failure. "As well as what Shalltear had turned into."

There was a slight flinch from the vampire who had been reminded about the incident that happened to her. Demiurge looked at Ainz with curiosity at these words. "I take it Aqua was the one who told you about them?"

"Yes, they are a foe that she and the other Guardians of Light have almost a duty to fight," Well, it was the duty of all Keyblade wielders to fight any force looking to upset the balance of Light and Darkness. They just fought those the most out of all the others. "They are called the Heartless and they are beings of Darkness and from what I gathered their leader might be the one responsible for controlling Shalltear."

That immediately got everyone's attention above all else Shalltear's. She had been reminded of her failure all day and only she was learning just who caused it. Shalltear wanted to make amends for her mistake and the first thought was to find this leader and show them why they shouldn't mess with Nazarick. As soon as those thoughts came through she suddenly felt hesitation in even going after them. _'What's going on with me?'_

* * *

A Corridor of Darkness sprung to life as Aqua walked out. Her armor disappearing in a flash as she turned to Namine. Given she had been monitoring the whole thing she what to know her thoughts were on the matter. "So do you think we should go through with it?"

Ainz had asked her about forming an alliance against the Heartless. Seeing how they were both not from this world it seemed advantageous to work together to some degree. Namine had some reservations on the whole idea. Even if it was helpful they really didn't know much about what they would be getting into. She could continue to look through his chain of memories and see what they wanted but right now that was still somewhat of a hassle. "It would be nice to have someone we could trust although there is an issue on how much they would want out of it."

Aqua nodded as she figured she could bring it up with him when they meet again. Now she had to talk to everyone else about it. "I'll need to speak to everyone to see how they would feel about this."

There was also something she had wanted to ask Namine about concerning communication. While they all had their Gummiphones those were out of place and explaining them away would be rather easy. However, there was always a chance that Ainz's group and them were not the only two groups from another world. Which reminded her she was going to have to tell everyone about what kind of story she had given Ainz on their origins.

"Very well," Namine raided her powers to contact everyone. After a few moments, she turned her head over to Aqua. "Everyone's ready when you are."

* * *

The Grey Area was much more alive compared to how it once was. Tables, generic-looking paintings, and so many seats from chairs to couches for everyone to sit. Aqua had explained what had happened. Her meeting with Ainz, the story she had to come up with, and finally his proposal for an alliance. The last bit was why Aqua had wanted to speak with them all. "Before I make this decision I have to get your thoughts on this as well."

"Well, it's nice to know you want our opinion over something like this," Lea had to admit it was a lot more considerate when compared to his old boss. Then again his old boss was basically Xehanort and they all knew how bad he was. "I have to ask were you thinking about accepting his proposal?"

All eyes turned to Aqua. The still newly made leader was quiet for a few moments before she gave her answer. "I had thought about it," They both did know nothing about each other personally. "There are a lot of risks but with us stuck here having someone to help us with the Heartless would be preferred."

They could understand her reasoning especially Sora, Donald, and Goofy. The three of them had always had someone or another travel with them while in most of the world's they visited. For Terra and Riku there was a bit of suspicion to his motives. "Do you think we can trust him?"

"Namine monitored the whole thing and didn't notice any ill intentions towards us," Of course, there was a degree of suspicion he had towards them. An understandable response given how they both knew little on the other. The issue would be anyone with him. "Although we can't rule out how anyone with him would feel or true intentions."

"So, it's a bit of a gamble then?" Lea was never a beating man. Sure he did play a few games with Luxord but that was more due to boredom. Looking back at least with what he knew now.

Mickey thought it over for a minute before he came to his conclusion. "I think this might be something we should at least try," He looked at the rest of the Guardians. "We might find ourselves in this world for a long time and that would mean we'll going to get the attention of possibly every Kingdom near us."

His words rang true, especially when dealing with the Heartless. Eventually, they will have to stop a Heartless attack on a largely populated area and with that would come with problems. Especially if someone like him, Kairi, or really anyone who couldn't pass for a human did so within a human city. It was fine for Sora, Donald, and Goofy thanks to the world order and not being on the worlds for long but right now they don't have either to help hide.

"If the King in agreement so are we," Both Donald and Goofy gave Aqua a nod. They both turned over to Sora. "What about you Sora?"

Sora crossed his arms as he thought this over. Riku and Terra were suspicious about this although Aqua and Namine did say there were no ill intentions to them. "I think whatever you choose I'll trust your judgment."

* * *

Aqua walked out of the Corridor of Darkness and into a tight alleyway of E-Rantel. She walked through the streets with her Keyblade armor still on as she did so. Kairi had warned her about heading out into the city with her rather inhuman looks. She could have chosen to use her magic to change her appearance but the one problem would be her clothes. They were not enchanted for that and from what little she had heard from Riku, Sora, and Kairi hers would probably stand out.

Still, her armor was more than enough to blend in even if certain choices seemed bizarre. Kairi, after all, had worn hers and people just thought she was some kind of adventurer. Perhaps that was what Ainz did himself seeing how a skeleton walking around would be a terrifying sight. "This should be the place," The Inn that Ainz said that he would meet her. Walking in Aqua looked around for the person she was supposed to meet. _'I think she is it.'_

Narberal Gamma had caught attention to the strange armored figured that had walked in. When she walked up Narberal had a slight feeling that this was who she was supposed to be waiting on. "Are you Nabe?"

"I am are you Aqua?" Narberal was given a nod from the metal helmet. So it seems that she was using armor to hide her appearance much like her lord. Although the armor design was striking as it looked.

Ainz was within the room as his mind raced with what to do. Aqua should be coming to see him soon with his answer on an alliance. He had been thinking about what to do if she refused. While this was brought up by Albedo, who wondered if he would kill them, Ainz had thought it over and quickly decided that was a terrible idea. If the Heartless are as she said them to be the last thing they wanted was to piss off the only thing that could stop them.

No, he figured that as long as they didn't get in each other's way they should just let them be if that happens. _'Our forces could use a bit of work,'_ He was pulled from his thoughts as he heard a knock on the door. Immediately returned his armor over his form in his adventurer identity he answered. "Yes?"

Narberal walked in with a person dressed in strange armor. From the form of it and the unknown look, it took him a moment to realize that this had to be Aqua. The helmet was removed proving him correct in his guess. It disappeared in a flash of light soon afterwards. "Aqua nice to see you again," He turned over to Narberal. "Stay outside while we talk."

"As you wish," Narberal gave him a bow as she exited the room.

Ainz returned to his usual look as there was no sense to continue to wear the armor or the illusion. He did take a look at her own armor. A part of him wondered about what it was made from as it seemed much more fluid. Less like armor and more along the lines of actual clothing. "So, I take it you told your follow Guardians about the proposition?"

"Yeah, I wanted to hear everyone's thoughts before I made a decision about it," There was a small pause as Aqua recalled everyone's thoughts on the whole thing. "I decided to take you up on the offer."

Inwardly Ainz felt somewhat relieved after hearing this. With this Nazarick would have both the means to counter the Heartless and this had possibly removed an unknown from being a threat to them. Plus he wouldn't have to deal with any problems that might have happened had they just gone their separate ways. _'This is as much a gamble for me as it is for her,'_ Now then there was just the issue on what they would both get out of this. "That's great news to hear Aqua."

Outside the room, Narberal just stood watch. She had managed to overhear a few things that were said between the two undead within the room. From what she heard it had seemed that the Guardians of Light had taken her lords offer. After a few minutes, the door opened as Aqua walked out her helmet reappearing on her head. "I'll be sure to send them over later today."

With that Aqua left the halls heading for the exit. Narberal turned over to Ainz who exited under his own disguise. "Lord Ainz what was she talking about?"

"Aqua has agreed to an alliance and has offered for one of their members to stay with us in order to deal with any Heartless we may encounter," Ainz was curious as to just who they would be given. Although he did know that he was going to have to make sure that the Tomb knew just who they were.

* * *

Riku walked out of the Corridor of Darkness and summoned his Keyblade into his hand. After the talk last night Aqua figured that they should each go about dealing with any Heartless incursions on the world. Above all, though they had to locate the heart of the world. Namine was unable to pinpoint where it was, and if it wasn't closed there could be dire consequences.

From the ground, Shadows rose followed by Soldiers and even a Neoshadow. He wasted no time as his Keyblade swung into the first two targets taking them out. The Heartless impatiently rushed in to retaliate against the Keyblade wielder. Riku raised his Keyblade as several bolts of lightning raced down on the Soldiers. "Thunder!"

Hearts burst from the Heartless as the Neoshadow attempted to attack him from behind. Riku twirled around his Keyblade meeting the Heartless the moment it tried to attack him. He stood in the middle of wisps of dark energy faded away. The remaining Shadows were unconcerned for the fates of the rest of their kind. They rushed him their instincts not telling then how hopeless it was. A Dark Firaga came from the tip of the weapon and on contact, it exploded taking the remaining Heartless with it.

"That's the last of them," Riku stopped as a faint scent caught his attention. This was from a far stronger Heartless then the ones he just faced. If he had to guess it was an Emblem Heartless. "The scent is heading that way."

Riku didn't have to travel far before he found the Heartless. It looked like Metal Troll but with what appeared to be a slimmer built and instead of the usual ax it had a clever of a sword. What caught Riku's attention was that it was fighting a group of people.

This last few days had not been going well for the Black Scripture. Their mission had failed thanks to a powerful Vampire that had managed to kill two of their party and inflict a fatal wound on the holder of the World Item. As they tried to head back to the Do and Theocracy these black creatures started to pop up and attack them. True most were easily dispatched but they just kept coming and coming. They are tired from having to constantly fight these things and right now the one in front of him just had the presence that it was far stronger than any they had faced before.

Two dark fireballs were then seen firing out and slamming into the head of the armored creature. The Heartless turned in the direction of who sent it as did the Black Scripture. "Come on why don't you pick on someone your own size?"

As soon as it noticed the Keyblade the Heartless eyes turned from yellow to red as the instinctive urge to kill took over. It purged for Riku faster then anything it's size had any right to be and brought its sword down. It only hit the ground as Riku melded himself into the very shadows and reappeared in front of the giant. He slashed at its head knocking the Heartless back in retaliation as he cut through the armor surrounding its face.

With its free hand, the Heartless reached to grabbed Riku. Instead, it grabbed nothing as Riku used Doubleflight to get out of the way. "Thunder!"

Lightning raced from the air as the Thundaga struck the Heartless. In annoyance and pain, it slammed it's sword into the ground causing pillars of earth to shoot up everywhere around it. Riku managed to jump on to the top of the pillars and then with a glow covering his form he dashed faster than the eye could see and slashed into the Heartless knocking it to the ground. Riku pointed his Keyblade forward as a barrage of Dark Aura hit the exposed face of the Heartless and with that its body broke apart.

Mists of dark energy and a large floating heart marked all that remained of the Heartless, aside from the damage to the surrounding area, of course. Riku looked over at the individuals who he had just saved from the Heartless. The leader of them looked at the silver-haired Keyblade Master in awe and confusion. "Who are you?"

* * *

Lea looked on as he watched Kairi trying to get a lively response from the nameless nobody. Nothing really happened as just like with Roxas there wasn't anything there for them to form the basis of. Namine even admitted that she couldn't do anything for her as she had no memories, to begin with beyond faint echoes. "You know we should really give her a name."

Kairi looked over at him as lea took a seat to the side. The Nobody didn't seem to react to his presence which was really unsettling. Even for Lea who had already gone through with this once before. "We can't just address her as Nobody all the time it would seem kind of mean especially when she forms her own heart."

She had thought about giving her a name but the thing is Kairi wanted to know just who she came from first. Roxas got his name from Sora and Xion… well, she literally was just named after a project. No points for creativity from her creator/father it seems. Thinking about it she started to wonder if Lea had a point. They may never found out who her somebody was anytime soon and she will start to develop a heart eventually. "What do you want as your name?"

"My name?" The Nobody just spoke emotionless at her. Lea had almost a sense of deja vu after hearing this. Memories of Roxas were not hard to recall especially given how similar this situation was.

"Yes a name," Of course they were going to have to explain it to her. There were no memories within her and that includes even such things they took for granted. "My name is Kairi and his is Lea but everyone calls him Axel."

The Nobody looked between the both of them very slowly. "Kairi… Axel…" There was almost a hint of acknowledgment within her voice. The two names echoed within its mind. Over and over again before their faces ended up attached to the names. "What is my name?"

"Unfortunately you don't have one," Lea words didn't affect her one bit. Which given she didn't have any means to feel any emotions was understandable. After all, how could someone feel anything when they didn't have a heart?

A faint echo started to make its way through the mind of the Nobody. Something familiar escaped her mouth after a few moments. "Shalltear."

Both Kairi and Lea stared at her as the word left her mouth. This could be an echo of a memory that she had. Kairi had been called Albedo by her the moment she had seen her. Something about Kairi's appearance had caused the echo to come up. "Shalltear?"

Lea was guessing that was someone's name. If you ask him that just sounded weird. Then again what was he to complain about names? "So, is that your name?"

"I don't remember."

He didn't know what he expected from asking that question to someone without any memories. For all, they knew it was probably just a friend or something. "Hey, Lea," Ventus entered into the room. "Namine and Aqua need you."

Given how the others were starting to get missions to deal with Heartless incursions it looked like he was up next. "Alright," Lea turned back over to the both of them. "Sorry, got to go let me know what you both decide on her name."

* * *

Ainz and Narberal stood outside the city waiting for the Keyblade wielder to be sent over. From the ground tendrils of dark mists formed before they shot out and form into something that Aqua had shown him the picture of. A Corridor of Darkness, one of the three methods that they used to get around long distances. The irony of a group called the Guardians of Light using the Darkness was not lost on Ainz or Aqua.

Walking out of the Dark Corridor was a familiar face to him and he wasn't the only one. Sora looked at the Black-armored figure holding a bit surprised. "Hey, you were that armored guy from before."

"Yes, strange how things turned out," Ainz was actually surprised to find out that Sora was the one who Aqua had sent over. He knew he should have told her about how poorly their opinion of humans is but perhaps Sora could do something about that? "I didn't get your name last time though I do believe you know mine."

"Oh, I'm Sora," He greeted with a smile. The Keyblade Chosen turned over to Narberal. "So, I know who you are but who is she?"

"My name is Narberal Gamma of the Pleiades," She managed to say this was as much neutrality as she could.

Sora, however, had a feeling that she didn't like him for some reason. Something about how she was looking at him almost screamed that she saw him as beneath her. He had seen the look before and that mostly came from people who he ended up fighting. _'It's probably nothing.'_

_"Lord Ainz we have a problem,"_ Ainz paused and looked up slightly as he heard Albedo through [ **Message** ]. There was panic in her tone. _"We're under attack by the black creatures, the Heartless!"_

This had to be either a coincidence or a deliberate attack. If it was the latter then there was no telling what it was to do. Assuming they were not just mindlessly attacking them. That was also a possibility given that the Heartless, outside of a few exceptions, were just driven by instinct. His eyes turned over to Sora. "We'll be right there Albedo."

* * *

All things considered, this wasn't as bad as he had thought it would have been. Merlin had warned him that he had no idea how the spell would have worked. The old wizard had warned that if it did there was no coming back. "Where am I?"

Around him, he could see the ruins of a city. One which had been almost reclaimed by nature. Now that he was standing he took a moment to check if he had everything with him. The potions, ethers, magic rings and other such objects were still with him. "I wonder where do I have too… "

He was interrupted as something coming out of the ruins. They looked like wolves but not like any he had ever seen. Hostility was the only look they gave him. Holding his hand out he summoned his Claymore into his hands. Whatever these things were they were not Heartless. The Hellhounds grower as more of them came out from the ruins.

For a moment he was grateful he kept his abilities for when he had become a Nobody. Apparently, most of the Organization kept their powers as well. Perhaps it was from the fledgling hearts they had or their bodies had gotten used to it. Regardless this just meant he had nothing to fear from these creatures. "Moon, shine down."

* * *

This world was rather strange. Then again it had broken off a long time ago. Maybe if they knew about it would the others had stopped fighting? No, he had already seen the outcome. The imbalance was too much. There was nothing that could have been done once the first bit of the world broke off. ' _Still, to think that such a radical change was going to happen if those kids didn't interfere with the creation of the new world.'_

Looking up into the sky he was almost at a loss. The whole world was effectively being circled by the spawn of the ancient war. Funny how no one questioned where they came from until it was too late. "I wonder are you both here?" With that, he turned around and pulled the hood back up on his black coat. "Only one way to find out."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now the Heartless Riku faced was something of a variant. I thought about introducing such things. As for what is going to happen with him. I think you got a good idea of what is to come. You already probably know who the two at the end of the chapter are. Let me just say Ainz really should avoid the later given that he is back to his full power. Him and well most of the Guardians of Light.

**Author's Note:**

> Sora has made it to the New World (Or an Old World) bringing in his fellow Guardians of Light in an unknown game. Naturally he brings that Heartless and all the problems that they bring. Pj, and it's at a rather terrible time as a certain Overlord appears with them and the rest of the world obvious to the nigh-unstoppable force coming to eat their Hearts, along with the other issues of Darkness.
> 
> Before I forget while Sora has come to this world as what he is this does not extend to the other Guardians of Light. I'll like to see what races you expect the others to have become or not.


End file.
